Affects widely used Kubernetes secret management component; high risk of secret exposure and potential RCE.
CVE-2026-22822
RCE via getSecretKey in External Secrets Operator (pre-1.2.0).
Is CVE-2026-22822 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-22822 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.18% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-22822?
CVE-2026-22822 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.3. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-22822?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-22822. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-22822 affect?
CVE-2026-22822 affects External Secrets Operator (Kubernetes) <= v0.20.2 - < v1.2.0. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-22822?
Upgrade to 1.2.0+ or disable getSecretKey via policy
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Cross-namespace secret access via getSecretKey; could expose secrets and enable templating-based actions or RCE.
Patch when possible
- affected>= 0.20.2 and < 1.2.0
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.