CVE-2026-88981kubeflow pipelines server-side request forgery
CVE-2026-88981 is a server-side request forgery in kubeflow pipelines, rated high (8.6 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: High severity, with no exploitation signal yet.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Awaiting Analysis
What it is
The server can be made to fetch an address of the attacker's choosing, including internal services and cloud metadata endpoints.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, without an account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can read the data it protects. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker make the server send requests into internal networks or cloud metadata. The damage can spread past the vulnerable component into others.
Is it being exploited?
There is no public report of exploitation yet. It can be exploited automatically, at scale.
What to do
- Upgrade kubeflow pipelines to 2.18.0 or later.
- Until it is patched, keep it off the internet or behind a VPN, allowlist or authenticating proxy.
Description from NVD
Kubeflow Pipelines enables users to build and deploy portable, scalable machine learning workflows. Prior to 2.18.0, the frontend artifact download path for source=s3 or source=minio accepts providerInfo.Params.endpoint, and the archived pod-log path accepts S3-compatible endpoint metadata from workflow status, without requiring those endpoints to match operator-controlled storage configuration. In the shipped authorization-disabled standalone configuration, an unauthenticated caller can make the shared ml-pipeline-ui pod connect to arbitrary reachable hosts and return response data; requests may also reveal an access-key identifier when signed with configured object-store credentials. Multi-user secret-backed metadata remains restricted to the server namespace. This issue is fixed in version 2.18.0.
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
- Services that fetch URLs or call other hosts for a caller. The flaw sits between the application and the internal network behind it.
Trust boundaries in play
- Internet-facing entry points. No account is needed. Any instance reachable from outside your perimeter, through a load balancer, gateway, VPN or exposed admin port, is in scope.
- Isolation between components. The impact crosses out of the vulnerable component into others it should be isolated from.
- Between the application and the internal network behind it. An attacker who crosses it can make the server send requests into internal networks or cloud metadata.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does kubeflow pipelines 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?
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.