# CVE-2026-97146: Apache YuniKorn: Admission control bypass via system label forgery

> Attackers can bypass admission control checks by forging system labels, allowing unauthorized queue access and quota enforcement evasion in Apache YuniKorn.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.8 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 7 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vgg9-3qc4-wv7m

## What is CVE-2026-97146?

CVE-2026-97146 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache YuniKorn, published on 7 Oct 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Apache YuniKorn 1.9.0 and earlier allows bypassing the check for the user annotation by setting a secondary label on the pod. If the pod has the label 'app=yunikorn' the checks limiting the user annotation content are not run. The label is used to identify the YuniKorn application itself in the deployments.

The bypass allows any user to specify an arbitrary user info annotation. The arbitrary user information could allow access to a queue that the user normally would not have access to. Quota usage for the queue might be impacted if the application runs in the incorrect queue. User based quota enforcement is also based on the user annotation. User quota tracking could be side stepped even if the application runs in the correct queue.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.10.0, which fixes this issue.

Weakness: CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97146?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-97146?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-97146 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-97146 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97146 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-97146 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-97146 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache YuniKorn, published on 7 Oct 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97146 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Apache YuniKorn. 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-2026-97146/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97146/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-97146
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97146
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-97146

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97146/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.