CVE-2026-44543 Local Path Provisioner: HelperPod Template Injection
A malicious user with ConfigMap edit permissions can inject privileged pod templates, gaining root access to the host node and accessing sensitive data.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-44543?
CVE-2026-44543 is a high-severity vulnerability in rancher local-path-provisioner, published on 28 May 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Local Path Provisioner provides a way for the Kubernetes users to utilize the local storage in each node. Prior to 0.0.36, a malicious user with permission to edit the local-path-config ConfigMap in the local-path-storage namespace can manipulate the helperPod.yaml template used by rancher/local-path-provisioner. The helperPod.yaml template is loaded by the provisioner and used to create HelperPods during PVC provisioning and cleanup operations. However, the template is not sufficiently validated before use. Security-sensitive fields such as securityContext.privileged, hostPath volumes, and Linux capabilities can be injected into the template. When a PVC operation triggers HelperPod creation, the provisioner creates the HelperPod using the attacker-controlled template. This can result in a privileged pod running on the target node with the host root filesystem mounted. This may allow the attacker to access sensitive host files, read ServiceAccount tokens from other pods on the same node, access other tenants' local-path volume data, or modify files on the host node. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.0.36.
Weakness: CWE-269
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-44543?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/rancher/local-path-provisioner. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/rancher/local-path-provisioner Go | All versions | 0.0.36 |
github.com/rancher/local-path-provisioner Go | All versions | 0.0.36 |
github.com/rancher/local-path-provisioner Go | All versions | 0.0.36 |
Products include Suse Local Path Provisioner.
How do I fix CVE-2026-44543?
Upgrade github.com/rancher/local-path-provisioner to 0.0.36 or later.
Is CVE-2026-44543 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-44543 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-7fxv-8wr2-mfc4, GO-2026-5218.