OpenShift GitOps: ClusterRole reconciler ignores ownership, letting a namespaced Argo CD delete cluster RBAC

Impact

The operator's ClusterRole reconciler does not check who owns a ClusterRole before acting on it. A tenant who controls a namespace-scoped Argo CD instance can pick a name that collides with a ClusterRole belonging to the cluster-scoped instance and cause that object to be deleted. The cluster-scoped Argo CD then loses the permissions it needs and stops reconciling, so the platform's deployment path for the whole fleet goes down until an admin restores the RBAC. The scope-change in the CVSS vector reflects exactly this: a tenant-level actor breaks a cluster-level component. Impact is denial of service only - no data disclosure or arbitrary write is described.

Who can reach it

A low-privileged but authenticated user who can create or configure a namespace-scoped Argo CD instance - typically a tenant with their own GitOps namespace on a shared OpenShift cluster.

What to do

Apply the OpenShift GitOps operator update Red Hat publishes for this CVE; the operator pods restart, which pauses reconciliation briefly but needs no node drain. The NVD record does not pin a fixed version - check the Red Hat CVE page. Until then, limit who may create namespace-scoped Argo CD instances and avoid letting tenant instances choose arbitrary ClusterRole names.

References

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