Paper/Archive/CVE-2026-61549

CVE-2026-61549

woodpecker-ci woodpecker — Woodpecker: Privilege escalation via unrestricted serviceAccountName in the Kubernetes backend

Description · from the CVE record

Woodpecker is a CI/CD engine. From 1.0.0 until 3.16.0, pipeline/backend/kubernetes/backend_options.go defines backend_options.kubernetes.serviceAccountName, and the Kubernetes backend in pipeline/backend/kubernetes/pod.go copies that pipeline-step value directly into the pod specification without administrator authorization. Any user with Push permission on a connected repository can therefore run pipeline pods under an arbitrary ServiceAccount in the pipeline namespace and inherit that account's RBAC permissions. When a privileged ServiceAccount is reachable, the attacker can exfiltrate secrets such as database credentials, API keys, and TLS certificates and may take over the cluster. This issue is fixed in version 3.16.0.

Affected

ProductAffectedFixed inSource
woodpecker>= 1.0.0, < 3.16.0–CNA

Scores by source

GitHub_M (CNA)9.0CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
CISA ADPSSVCExploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

References

refgithub.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/security/advisories/GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8refgithub.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/pull/6792refgithub.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/commit/5df9d52260626c074c6caafb2dc83d3bc6b53be1refgithub.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/commit/609ba481b5e912f59aaae8ca7bc22b44523c5e37refgithub.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/releases/tag/v3.16.0