CVE-2024-56513 Karmada PULL Mode Cluster Privilege Escalation
An attacker authenticating as karmada-agent can escalate privileges to control the entire Karmada federation and all member clusters.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2024-56513?
CVE-2024-56513 is a high-severity vulnerability in karmada-io karmada, published on 3 Jan 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Karmada is a Kubernetes management system that allows users to run cloud-native applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters and clouds. Prior to version 1.12.0, the PULL mode clusters registered with the `karmadactl register` command have excessive privileges to access control plane resources. By abusing these permissions, an attacker able to authenticate as the karmada-agent to a karmada cluster would be able to obtain administrative privileges over the entire federation system including all registered member clusters. Since Karmada v1.12.0, command `karmadactl register` restricts the access permissions of pull mode member clusters to control plane resources. This way, an attacker able to authenticate as the karmada-agent cannot control other member clusters in Karmada. As a workaround, one may restrict the access permissions of pull mode member clusters to control plane resources according to Karmada Component Permissions Docs.
Weakness: CWE-266
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-56513?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/karmada-io/karmada.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/karmada-io/karmada Go | All versions | 1.12.0 |
github.com/karmada-io/karmada Go | All versions | 1.12.0 |
github.com/karmada-io/karmada Go | All versions | 1.12.0 |
How do I fix CVE-2024-56513?
Upgrade github.com/karmada-io/karmada to 1.12.0 or later.
Is CVE-2024-56513 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-56513 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-mg7w-c9x2-xh7r, GO-2025-3364.