CVE-2026-122321kyverno time-of-check to time-of-use race
CVE-2026-122321 is a time-of-check to time-of-use race in kyverno, rated high (8.5 on CVSS 4.0).
Why this priority: High severity, with no exploitation signal yet.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed
What it is
Something is checked, then changed by an attacker before it is used.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, with an ordinary user account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can change data or behaviour. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker win a timing window to bypass a check or corrupt shared state. The damage can spread past the vulnerable component into others.
Is it being exploited?
There is no public report of exploitation yet. EPSS estimates a 0.23% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 14% of scored CVEs.
What to do
- Upgrade kyverno to 1.19.2 or later.
- Until it is patched, review who holds accounts that can reach it.
Description from NVD
Kyverno 1.18.0 before 1.19.2 contains a signature verification bypass in verifyImages because cached verification results are keyed by the image reference string (such as a tag) rather than bound to the verified digest, so cache hits skip signature and attestation checks. An attacker who can submit workloads and move a registry tag can warm the cache with a signed image, repoint the tag, and have Kyverno admit the workload and use mutateDigest to pin the unverified digest.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Request handlers and jobs that share state. The flaw sits between concurrent requests or processes.
Trust boundaries in play
- Authenticated network access. An account is needed, so exposure follows who can sign in: customers, partners or staff.
- Isolation between components. The impact crosses out of the vulnerable component into others it should be isolated from.
- Between concurrent requests or processes. An attacker who crosses it can win a timing window to bypass a check or corrupt shared state.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does kyverno run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Read more
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.