Allows broad in-cluster impersonation on OpenShift clusters by any user with namespace edit rights; impacts multi-tenant cloud-native infrastructure and can lead to service compromise.
CVE-2026-78234
Hawtio operator can mint Service-CA-signed certs allowing in-cluster service impersonation.
Is CVE-2026-78234 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-78234 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 0.21% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-78234?
CVE-2026-78234 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.9. 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-2026-78234?
Not known from our data. No patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-78234, which is not the same as no patch existing — a fix may have shipped without a tagged reference, or after this record was written. The vendor advisory is the only authority on whether a fix exists, and mitigations may be available regardless.
What does CVE-2026-78234 affect?
CVE-2026-78234 affects hawtio-operator, OpenShift Service CA, OpenShift clusters, Components trusting Service CA (e.g., Jolokia). Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-78234?
Remove/disable hawtio-operator, restrict CR permissions, revoke/rekey Service CA, apply vendor patch when published
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Any namespace user with edit can obtain Service-CA-signed cert with arbitrary CN and impersonate in-cluster services (e.g., Jolokia), bypassing authentication.
Immediate action required