What is CVE-2026-42296?
Argo Workflows is an open source container-native workflow engine for orchestrating parallel jobs on Kubernetes. Prior to versions 3.7.14 and 4.0.5, a user with create Workflow permission can bypass templateReferencing: Strict to get host network access, switch service accounts, override pod security context, add tolerations to schedule on control-plane nodes, or enable SA token mounting. This defeats the stated purpose of the feature. The practical impact depends on what Kubernetes-level controls are in place. Clusters with PodSecurity admission or OPA/Gatekeeper would independently block some of these (like hostNetwork). Clusters that rely on Argo's Strict mode as the primary enforcement layer are fully exposed. This issue has been patched in versions 3.7.14 and 4.0.5.
The record classifies CVE-2026-42296 under weakness class CWE-863. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs low-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 171 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 8.1 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N - EPSS (FIRST)
- 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 40.3% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- Threadlinqs priority
- 5.7/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- Published
- 2026-05-09, last modified 2026-07-15
Is CVE-2026-42296 being exploited?
It currently carries a trending score of 15 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.
Affected products and versions
- argoproj: argo-workflows
Affected software packages:
go:github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3— patched in 3.7.14go:github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v4— patched in 4.0.5
How to fix CVE-2026-42296
Fixed versions are recorded for 2 packages: go:github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3 3.7.14, go:github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v4 4.0.5. No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-42296 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.
Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-42296
1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2026-42296, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
Sources
Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, GitHub Security Advisories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on .