CVE-2026-105311 PUBLISHED

Console-operator: streams for apache kafka console: cross-namespace kafkauser secret exfiltration via confused deputy

Assigner: redhat
Reserved: 05.10.2026 Published: 20.10.2026 Updated: 20.10.2026

The StreamsHub Console operator acts as a confused deputy: a Kubernetes tenant with permission to create a Console custom resource can set spec.kafkaClusters[].credentials.kafkaUser.namespace to any namespace. The operator, running with cluster-wide Secrets RBAC, reads the victim-namespace KafkaUser Secret (SASL credentials or TLS private keys) and writes the plaintext material into a Secret in the attacker's namespace. No same-namespace check or allowlist exists anywhere in the code path.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS Score: 7.7

Product Status

Vendor Red Hat
Product StreamsHub Console for Apache Kafka®
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0.2.0 to 0.12.10 (excl.)
  • affected from 0.13.0 to 0.14.2 (excl.)
Vendor Red Hat
Product streams for Apache Kafka 2
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product streams for Apache Kafka 3
Versions Default: affected

Workarounds

  1. Restrict Console CR RBAC — remove create/update verbs on consoles.console.streamshub.github.com from tenant-facing roles. Only trusted cluster administrators should manage Console CRs.
  2. Audit existing Console CRs — review all Console CRs for kafkaUser.namespace fields pointing outside the CR's own namespace.
  3. Network policy (defense-in-depth) — apply NetworkPolicy to restrict operator pod egress.

References

Problem Types

  • Unintended Proxy or Intermediary ('Confused Deputy') CWE