{"id":"GHSA-q7hv-xx6h-q2x8","summary":"External Secrets Operator: label enforcement bypass in webhook generator enables secret exfiltration","details":"## Summary\nA bug in the `webhook` generator initialization order incorrectly cleared the label-enforcement flag (`EnforceLabels`) after it was set, resulting in the provider-side check for `external-secrets.io/type=webhook` being skipped (and the operation to succeed while it should have failed with `secret does not contain needed label 'external-secrets.io/type: webhook'. Update secret label to use it with webhook`.\n\n## Impact\nA user with the permission to create webhook generator can set the webhook generator to a victim' secret (which was not previously labelled for webhook's use), and exfiltrate it to a malicious URL.\n\n## Mitigations\nUntil you upgrade, you can reduce risk by:\n- disabling webhook generators if not needed (or denying `generators.external-secrets.io/v1alpha1` `Webhook` via an admission policy);\n- restricting RBAC: limit who can create generators of kind `Webhook`;\n- enforcing an admission policy (OPA Gatekeeper / Kyverno) requiring referenced secrets to be labeled `external-secrets.io/type=webhook`;\n- restricting egress from external-secrets controller pods to an allowlist (kubernetes `NetworkPolicy` / service mesh egress policy).\n\n## References\n- PR #5901 (fix: webhook initialization order)","aliases":["CVE-2026-26287"],"modified":"2026-10-06T15:46:48.137821978Z","published":"2026-10-06T15:29:25Z","database_specific":{"github_reviewed":true,"github_reviewed_at":"2026-10-06T15:29:25Z","nvd_published_at":null,"cwe_ids":["CWE-696"],"severity":"HIGH"},"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/security/advisories/GHSA-q7hv-xx6h-q2x8"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/pull/5901"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/commit/25aa09275861e3ed6fc5d2a1a60b9ac3df4a93ba"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/releases/tag/v1.3.2"}],"affected":[{"package":{"name":"github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets","ecosystem":"Go","purl":"pkg:golang/github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets"},"ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0.10.0"},{"fixed":"1.3.2"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/10/GHSA-q7hv-xx6h-q2x8/GHSA-q7hv-xx6h-q2x8.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.9.0","severity":[{"type":"CVSS_V3","score":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N"}]}