CVE-2023-23939 - CVE House
Back to Database
Status published Low CVE-2023-23939

Azure/setup-kubectl: Escalation of privilege vulnerability for v3 and lower

Vulnerability Description

Azure/setup-kubectl is a GitHub Action for installing Kubectl. This vulnerability only impacts versions before version 3. An insecure temporary creation of a file allows other actors on the Actions runner to replace the Kubectl binary created by this action because it is world writable. This Kubectl tool installer runs `fs.chmodSync(kubectlPath, 777)` to set permissions on the Kubectl binary, however, this allows any local user to replace the Kubectl binary. This allows privilege escalation to the user that can also run kubectl, most likely root. This attack is only possible if an attacker somehow breached the GitHub actions runner or if a user is utilizing an Action that maliciously executes this attack. This has been fixed and released in all versions `v3` and later. 775 permissions are used instead. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

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

THREAT MONITOR

Am I Vulnerable?

Launch our assessment wizard to check if your infrastructure is exposed to • CVE-2023-23939

Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

setup-kubectl
Vulnerable Versions:
< 3

Timeline

Official Publish: March 6th, 2023
Last Modified: February 25th, 2025
Added to House: July 22nd, 2026

CVSS Vectors

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

Weaknesses (CWE)