High
Kyverno Denial of Service via Context Variable Amplification in Policy Engine
Type: advisorySources: OSV
Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Versions prior to 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 have unbounded memory consumption in Kyverno's policy engine that allows users with policy creation privileges to cause denial of service by crafting policies that exponentially amplify string data through context variables. Versions 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 contain a patch for the vulnerability.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2026-23881
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 4 Nov 2026, 03:05 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
Kyverno Denial of Service via Context Variable Amplification in Policy Engine
core-osv · Original sourcePublished 27 Jan 2026, 16:10 UTC
Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Versions prior to 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 have unbounded memory consumption in Kyverno's policy engine that allows users with policy creation privileges to cause denial of service by crafting policies that exponentially amplify string data through context variables. Versions 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 contain a patch for the vulnerability.
osv:CVE-2026-23881
Complete source record
{
"id": "4edcaa2ae9ba8dc69772bbeac60e0c6fae683441984004406187d691805b13c4",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23881",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "Kyverno Denial of Service via Context Variable Amplification in Policy Engine",
"summary": "Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Versions prior to 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 have unbounded memory consumption in Kyverno's policy engine that allows users with policy creation privileges to cause denial of service by crafting policies that exponentially amplify string data through context variables. Versions 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 contain a patch for the vulnerability.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-23881",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2026-23881",
"aliases": [
"BIT-kyverno-2026-23881",
"CVE-2026-23881",
"GHSA-r2rj-wwm5-x6mq",
"GO-2026-4382"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "13ba08e97c90c058184db9204754b900aeaf084e"
},
{
"introduced": "18f9549cb2af30ec0537cd97f3200228d9f42d4b"
},
{
"fixed": "188151e6b60b192aabcbc24943c3159e5cfab5da"
},
{
"fixed": "7a651be3a8c78dcabfbf4178b8d89026bf3b850f"
},
{
"fixed": "f5617f60920568a301740485472bf704892175b7"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:kyverno:kyverno:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.15.3"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:kyverno:kyverno:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "1.16.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.16.3"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"range": [
{
"fixed": "7a651be3a8c78dcabfbf4178b8d89026bf3b850f"
}
],
"source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
},
{
"range": [
{
"fixed": "f5617f60920568a301740485472bf704892175b7"
}
],
"source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
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"v1.16.2",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.6.2",
"kyverno-chart-3.6.2",
"v1.16.2-rc.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.6.2-rc.1",
"kyverno-chart-3.6.2-rc.1",
"v1.16.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.6.1",
"kyverno-chart-3.6.1",
"v1.16.1-rc.2",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.6.1-rc.2",
"kyverno-chart-3.6.1-rc.2",
"v1.16.1-rc.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.6.1-rc.1",
"kyverno-chart-3.6.1-rc.1",
"v1.16.0",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.6.0",
"kyverno-chart-3.6.0",
"v1.15.2",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.2",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.2",
"v1.15.2-rc.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.2-rc.1",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.2-rc.1",
"v1.15.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.1",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.1",
"v1.15.1-rc.3",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.1-rc.3",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.1-rc.3",
"v1.15.1-rc.2",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.1-rc.2",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.1-rc.2",
"v1.15.1-rc.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.1-rc.1",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.1-rc.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.0",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.0",
"v1.15.0",
"v1.15.0-rc.4",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.0-rc.4",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.0-rc.4",
"v1.15.0-rc.3",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.0-rc.3",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.0-rc.3",
"v1.15.0-rc.2",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.0-rc.2",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.0-rc.2",
"v1.15.0-rc.1",
"kyverno-policies-chart-3.5.0-rc.1",
"kyverno-chart-3.5.0-rc.1",
"1.9-dev",
"1.8-dev",
"1.7-dev",
"test-dev",
"1.6-dev",
"helm-chart-v2.1.3",
"v1.5.0-rc1",
"helm-chart-v2.1.0",
"v1.4.3",
"helm-chart-v2.0.3",
"v1.4.3-rc2",
"helm-chart-v2.0.3-rc2",
"v1.4.3-rc1",
"helm-chart-v2.0.3-rc1",
"v1.4.2",
"v1.4.2-rc4",
"v1.4.2-rc3",
"v1.4.2-rc2",
"v1.4.2-rc1",
"v1.4.1",
"v1.4.0-rc4",
"v1.4.0",
"v1.4.0-rc3",
"v1.4.0-rc2",
"v1.4.0-rc1",
"v1.3.6",
"v1.3.6-rc5",
"v1.3.6-rc4",
"v1.3.6-rc3",
"v1.3.6-rc2",
"v1.3.6-rc1",
"v1.3.5",
"v1.3.5-rc5",
"v1.3.5-rc4",
"v1.3.5-rc3",
"v1.3.5-rc2",
"v1.3.5-rc1",
"v1.3.4",
"v1.3.4-rc1",
"v1.3.3",
"v1.3.2",
"v1.3.2-rc3",
"v1.3.2-rc2",
"v1.3.2-rc1",
"v1.3.1",
"v1.3.0",
"v1.3.0-rc12",
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"v1.3.0-rc10",
"1.3.0-rc10",
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"v1.3.0-rc7",
"v1.3.0-rc6",
"v1.3.0-rc5",
"v1.3.0-rc4",
"v1.3.0-rc3",
"v1.3.0-rc2",
"v1.3.0-rc1",
"v1.2.1",
"v1.2.0",
"v1.1.12",
"v1.1.11",
"v1.1.10",
"v1.1.9",
"v1.1.8",
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"v1.1.7-rc4",
"v1.1.7-rc3",
"v1.1.7-rc2",
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"v0.11.0",
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"v0.9.1",
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],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-23881.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:33.103362560Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23881.json",
"https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-r2rj-wwm5-x6mq",
"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23881",
"https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/7a651be3a8c78dcabfbf4178b8d89026bf3b850f",
"https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/f5617f60920568a301740485472bf704892175b7"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-770"
],
"cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23881.json"
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2026-23881",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 499878,
"published_at": "2026-01-27T16:10:44.376+00:00"
}