Rancher is widely deployed in enterprises; this privilege escalation could grant full admin control over clusters.
CVE-2026-41052
Rancher privilege escalation via Project Owner (pre-fix versions).
Is CVE-2026-41052 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-41052 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 0.42% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-41052?
CVE-2026-41052 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.4. 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-2026-41052?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-41052. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-41052 affect?
CVE-2026-41052 affects Rancher 2.14.x before 2.14.2, Rancher 2.13.x before 2.13.6, Rancher 2.12.x before 2.12.10. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-41052?
Upgrade to fixed versions: 2.14.2+, 2.13.6+, 2.12.10+
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Project Owner can escalate to full admin, enabling cluster takeover and data/config access.
Immediate action required
- affected>= 2.12.0 and < 2.12.10
- affected>= 2.13.0 and < 2.13.6
- affected>= 2.14.0 and < 2.14.2
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.