High priorityDisclosed

Advisory · CVE-2026-122315

Crafted attestation statements can crash Kyverno image verification

Kyverno before 1.19.2 has an unchecked type assertion in buildStatementMap: an OCI referrer manifest with a non-string type field can bypass image verification under failurePolicy Ignore or crash-loop the reports-controller. Kyverno rates it CVSS 4.0 8.7.

Advisory published November 5, 2026Independent summary
Vendor
Kyverno
Product
Kyverno
Identifier / CWE
CVE-2026-122315
CWE-248
Action timing
Immediate
ELI5

Explain it like I’m five

Kyverno reads an attestation statement and assumes one field is text. A crafted manifest makes it crash instead, and the verification step either fails open or loops forever.

SIMPLIFIED_ATTACK_PATH04 STEPS
  1. 01Crafted referrer manifest pushed

    An attacker pushes an OCI referrer manifest with a non-string type field.

  2. 02Type assertion panics

    buildStatementMap hits the unchecked type assertion while processing the attestation statements.

  3. 03Verification bypass or crash loop

    Image verification is bypassed under failurePolicy Ignore, or the reports-controller crash-loops.

  4. 04Unverified images admitted

    Workloads can run without the attestation checks that should have gated them.

What happened

Kyverno disclosed CVE-2026-122315 for Kyverno before 1.19.2. An unchecked type assertion in buildStatementMap lets unauthenticated attackers crash the policy engine via crafted attestation statements: pushing an OCI referrer manifest with a non-string type field bypasses image verification under failurePolicy Ignore or crash-loops the reports-controller.

The advisory rates it CVSS 4.0 8.7 and identifies Kyverno 1.19.2 as the fixed release.

What to do

  1. Inventory Kyverno installations and confirm the deployed version.
  2. Upgrade affected installations to Kyverno 1.19.2 or later using the project release guidance.
  3. While remediation is underway, restrict who can push referrer artifacts to registries Kyverno verifies.
  4. Watch the reports-controller for crash loops and the admission webhook for verification failures.
  5. Review recently admitted workloads for images whose attestations were never properly checked.

Management note

Image verification that fails open on malformed input is not verification. Until patched, treat any workload admitted during a verification failure as unverified.