Executive brief
Aiven Operator is a tool used to manage Aiven cloud services directly from a Kubernetes cluster. A security flaw allows users with limited access to one part of the cluster to steal sensitive information, such as production database passwords and API keys, from other parts of the system. This could lead to unauthorized access to critical business data and external services.
Technical details
The Aiven Operator (versions 0.31.0 to 0.36.0) acts as a confused deputy because its ServiceAccount possesses cluster-wide secret read/write permissions via the 'aiven-operator-role' ClusterRole. The vulnerability exists in the 'ClickhouseUser' and 'ServiceUser' Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), specifically within the 'spec.connInfoSecretSource.namespace' field, which the operator trusts without validation. An attacker with 'create' permissions for these CRDs in a restricted namespace can specify a victim namespace; the operator then reads the target secret and writes the credentials into a new secret in the attacker's namespace. The issue was exacerbated by the lack of admission webhooks to enforce namespace boundaries. The fix in version 0.37.0 removes the ability to reference secrets across different namespaces.
Affected products
- Aiven Aiven Operator 0.31.0 to 0.36.0
Timeline
- 2026-04-09: disclosed
- 2026-04-09: patched: Fixed in version 0.37.0
- 2026-04-09: advisory