# CVE-2026-15218: Privilege escalation in Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4

> Excessive permissions in OpenShift AI service accounts allow attackers to gain cluster admin privileges and read all secrets.

- **Severity:** High 7.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xpxj-568j-277q

## What is CVE-2026-15218?

CVE-2026-15218 is a high-severity vulnerability in Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4, published on 17 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in the maas-api and maas-controller ServiceAccounts within Red Hat OpenShift AI. These ServiceAccounts are granted cluster-wide permissions that exceed their operational requirements. An attacker who compromises the identity of these ServiceAccounts, either through a remote code execution vulnerability or by creating a malicious pod in the same namespace, could exploit these excessive permissions. This could lead to full cluster administrator privileges through the creation of new ClusterRoleBindings or the disclosure of sensitive information by accessing all secrets across the cluster.

Weakness: CWE-266 (Incorrect Privilege Assignment)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-15218?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-15218?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-15218 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-15218 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-15218 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-15218 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-15218 is a high-severity vulnerability in Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4, published on 17 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-15218 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

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-2026-15218/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-15218/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-15218
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-15218
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-15218

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-15218/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.