CVE-2023-37900Public exploitNetwork attack vector

Controller OOM kill via unbounded manifest parsing

Published Jul 27, 2023 · Updated Oct 15, 2024

Resource exhaustion in Crossplane before 1.11.5 and 1.12.0 through 1.12.2 allows remote authenticated users to crash its controller. The Crossplane-runtime package parser passes an unbounded package image stream to YAMLReader.Read, which retains data until memory is exhausted and the container is OOMKilled. Creating the malicious Package requires high Kubernetes privileges; successful exploitation interrupts revision processing for other cluster users.

CVSS severity3.4
Low
EPSS probability0.62%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in Crossplane before 1.11.5 and 1.12.0 through 1.12.2 allows remote authenticated users to crash its controller. The Crossplane-runtime package parser passes an unbounded package image stream to YAMLReader.Read, which retains data until memory is exhausted and the container is OOMKilled. Creating the malicious Package requires high Kubernetes privileges; successful exploitation interrupts revision processing for other cluster users.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-37900
Published
Jul 27, 2023
Updated
Oct 15, 2024
Vendor
Crossplane
Product
Crossplane
Classifications
CWE-400, CWE-770, T1499.004
Attack vector
network
Privileges
admin

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jul 27, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Oct 15, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.

Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=< 1.11.5
  2. Affected versionversion=>= 1.12.0, < 1.12.3

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesadmin

What is affected?

Crossplane · Crossplaneversion=< 1.11.5; version=>= 1.12.0, < 1.12.3

Published CVSS scores

2.7NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
3.4GitHub, Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesadmin
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation Flood

Public exploit references

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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