# CVE-2026-18608: Privilege escalation in Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25

> Excessive ClusterRole permissions in the Data Science Pipelines Operator allow attackers to gain full administrative control over the Kubernetes cluster if the operator pod is compromised.

- **Severity:** High 8.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 10 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vh9j-mvrr-922q

## What is CVE-2026-18608?

CVE-2026-18608 is a high-severity vulnerability in Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25, published on 10 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in the Data Science Pipelines Operator (DSPO). The operator's ClusterRole, which defines its permissions, includes extensive privileges beyond what is necessary for its operation. These excessive permissions, such as the ability to execute commands within pods and manage cluster-wide roles, could be exploited. If the DSPO pod were compromised, an attacker could leverage these privileges to gain full administrative control over the entire Kubernetes cluster.

Weakness: CWE-250 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-18608?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-18608?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-18608 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-18608 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-18608 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-18608 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-18608 is a high-severity vulnerability in Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25, published on 10 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-18608 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25. 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-2026-18608/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-18608/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-18608
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-18608
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-18608

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-18608/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.