CVE-2019-11253 - CVE House
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Status published High CVE-2019-11253

Kubernetes API Server JSON/YAML parsing vulnerable to resource exhaustion attack

Vulnerability Description

Improper input validation in the Kubernetes API server in versions v1.0-1.12 and versions prior to v1.13.12, v1.14.8, v1.15.5, and v1.16.2 allows authorized users to send malicious YAML or JSON payloads, causing the API server to consume excessive CPU or memory, potentially crashing and becoming unavailable. Prior to v1.14.0, default RBAC policy authorized anonymous users to submit requests that could trigger this vulnerability. Clusters upgraded from a version prior to v1.14.0 keep the more permissive policy by default for backwards compatibility.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:

  • Rory McCune

References

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Affected Vendor

Affected Software

Kubernetes
Vulnerable Versions:
prior to 1.13.12, prior to 1.14.8, prior to 1.15.5, prior to 1.16.2, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12

Timeline

Official Publish: October 17th, 2019
Last Modified: September 16th, 2024
Added to House: July 20th, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-20

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application
Initial Access
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter
Execution
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
Privilege Escalation
T1213 Data from Information Repositories
Collection
T1565.002 Stored Data Manipulation
Impact