# CVE-2026-59269: Privilege escalation in Pinniped

> Attackers with AD group edit access can escalate Kubernetes privileges via LDAP injection in Pinniped Supervisor when specific configurations are present.

- **Severity:** Low 3.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/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:** 9 Jul 2026
- **Updated:** 9 Jul 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-7xq8-m6h6-2xg8

## What is CVE-2026-59269?

CVE-2026-59269 is a low-severity vulnerability in VMware Pinniped, published on 9 Jul 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A user authenticating to Kubernetes clusters via the Pinniped Supervisor could potentially gain elevated permissions in the clusters, only if all the following conditions were true: the Pinniped Supervisor server is running with an ActiveDirectoryIdentityProvider resource configured; the ActiveDirectoryIdentityProvider.spec.groupSearch.attributes.groupName is empty; the attacker gains the ability to edit some part of the distinguished name (DN) of group entries in the Active Directory (AD) server's database for groups to which they belong; the configured group search parameters cause the edited group to be included in the group search results for the user; and the attacker knows the password for an AD user who belongs to the edited AD group.
Affected versions: Pinniped (go.pinniped.dev) v0.11.0 through v0.46.0 inclusive; fixed in v0.47.0.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-59269?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-59269?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-59269 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-59269 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-59269 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-59269 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-59269 is a low-severity vulnerability in VMware Pinniped, published on 9 Jul 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-59269 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: VMware Pinniped. 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-2026-59269/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-59269/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-59269
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59269
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-59269

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-59269/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.