REDHAT-BUG-2524894: Hawtio-operator vulnerability

Published Aug 27, 2026
·
Updated

C-1 from Project Glasswing security audit of hawtio-operator. The operator reads the OpenShift Service CA private signing key and mints client certificates with a Subject CN supplied by the unprivileged author of the namespaced Hawtio CR. Any principal holding the edit or admin aggregated role in any namespace can obtain a Service-CA-signed certificate with an arbitrary subject, enabling impersonation of any in-cluster service identity. Source: hawtio-operator-security-audit.json#C-1.

Affected Software

1 affected component
hawtio-operator

Event History

Aug 27, 2026
Data Sourced
via Red Hat·09:53 AM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

1

Who can exploit this issue?

Any principal with the aggregated edit or admin role in any namespace can create or control a namespaced Hawtio custom resource and supply the certificate Subject CN.

2

What does successful exploitation allow?

An attacker can obtain a certificate signed by the OpenShift Service CA with an arbitrary subject. This can enable impersonation of any in-cluster service identity.

3

What access does the operator have that enables the issue?

The hawtio-operator reads the OpenShift Service CA private signing key and uses it to mint client certificates. The certificate subject is derived from a value supplied by an unprivileged author of the namespaced Hawtio custom resource.

Contact

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