CVE-2026-44945
Authenticated Rancher users can escalate to full admin of control plane and managed clusters.
Is CVE-2026-44945 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-44945 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 0.38% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-44945?
CVE-2026-44945 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.1. 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-2026-44945?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-44945. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-44945 affect?
CVE-2026-44945 affects Rancher 2.11.0 - <2.11.16, Rancher 2.12.0 - <2.12.12, Rancher 2.13.0 - <2.13.8, Rancher 2.14.0 - <2.14.2, and 1 further product or version. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-44945?
Upgrade Rancher to fixed versions immediately and restrict/ audit user tokens and roles.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Authenticated default users can gain full administrative control of the Rancher control plane and all downstream clusters, enabling cluster takeover and data/control exfiltration.
Immediate action required
- affected>= 2.11.0 and < 2.11.16
- affected>= 2.12.0 and < 2.12.12
- affected>= 2.13.0 and < 2.13.8
- 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.