# CVE-2023-30841: Ironic and ironic-inspector deployed within Baremetal Operator may expose as ConfigMaps

> Baremetal Operator stores credentials in ConfigMaps, allowing cluster readers to access sensitive authentication data.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 26 Apr 2023
- **Updated:** 30 Jan 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9wh7-397j-722m

## What is CVE-2023-30841?

CVE-2023-30841 is a medium-severity vulnerability in metal3-io baremetal-operator, published on 26 Apr 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Baremetal Operator (BMO) is a bare metal host provisioning integration for Kubernetes. Prior to version 0.3.0, ironic and ironic-inspector deployed within Baremetal Operator using the included `deploy.sh` store their `.htpasswd` files as ConfigMaps instead of Secrets. This causes the plain-text username and hashed password to be readable by anyone having a cluster-wide read-access to the management cluster, or access to the management cluster's Etcd storage. This issue is patched in baremetal-operator PR#1241, and is included in BMO release 0.3.0 onwards. As a workaround, users may modify the kustomizations and redeploy the BMO, or recreate the required ConfigMaps as Secrets per instructions in baremetal-operator PR#1241.

Weakness: CWE-319 (Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information), CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-30841?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator` | Go | All versions | 0.3.0 |
| `github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator` | Go | All versions | 0.3.0 |

Products: Linuxfoundation Baremetal Operator.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-30841?

Upgrade github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator to 0.3.0 or later.

## Is CVE-2023-30841 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-30841 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-30841 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-30841 is a medium-severity vulnerability in metal3-io baremetal-operator, published on 26 Apr 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-30841 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 0.3.0
- github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 0.3.0

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-30841/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-30841/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-30841
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-30841
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-30841

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-30841/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.