GHSA-jhjp-4c2q-xmx4
The `k8saudit` plugin's per-container fields (`ka.req.pod.containers.*`) and the shipped `k8s_audit_rules.yaml` evaluated only `requestObject.spec.containers`. Security-relevant settings on a pod's `initContainers` or `ephemeralContainers` were not inspected, so the shipped `Create Privileged Pod` rule did not fire for a privileged container placed in either list. ### Impact An actor able to create pods (the activity k8saudit is intended to audit) could run a privileged container without triggering the default `Create Privileged Pod` rule, by declaring it as an `initContainer` or `ephemeralContainer` instead of a regular container. Kubernetes runs such containers with the requested privileges, but the shipped rule did not see them. The same gap applied to other per-container security settings (capabilities, `allowPrivilegeEscalation`, `runAsUser`, etc.) and, for deployments using a customized image allowlist, to disallowed images placed in those lists. This is a detection bypass of the default k8saudit ruleset, not a direct privilege escalation, and it requires the ability to create pods. The cloud-provider variants (`k8saudit-eks`, `k8saudit-gke`, `k8saudit-aks`, `k8saudit-ovh`) embed the same extraction logic and ship the same ruleset, and were affected equally. Note: adding an ephemeral container goes through the `pods/ephemeralcontainers` subresource, so the `EphemeralContainers Created` rule still logged that event at `NOTICE`, but without any privileged/security evaluation. ### Patches Fixed in `k8saudit 0.18.0`, and in the cloud-variant releases that depend on it — `k8saudit-eks 0.12.0`, `k8saudit-gke 0.9.0`, `k8saudit-aks 0.6.0`, `k8saudit-ovh 0.6.0` — all released on 2026-06-19. The fix ([falcosecurity/plugins#1400](https://github.com/falcosecurity/plugins/pull/1400), merged 2026-06-18) adds dedicated `ka.req.pod.initContainers.*` and `ka.req.pod.ephemeralContainers.*` field families and updates `Create Privileged Pod` (via a new `any_container_priv
Properties
- ghsa_id
- GHSA-jhjp-4c2q-xmx4
- severity
- medium
- summary
- k8saudit shipped rules do not detect privileged/sensitive settings on init or ephemeral containers
- cvss_score
- 4.3
- cve_id
- GHSA-jhjp-4c2q-xmx4
- cvss_vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- signal_observed_at
- 2026-09-21T23:07:22+00:00
- is_ghsa_only
- true
- ghsa_published
- 2026-09-21T21:43:52Z
- source_url
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jhjp-4c2q-xmx4
- ghsa_updated
- 2026-09-21T21:43:55Z
Related Entities (12)
VULNERABLE_TO (5)
AFFECTS (5)
HAS_WEAKNESS (1)
REPORTED_BY (1)
Explore deeper with Ninja Signal's threat intelligence graph