---
id: CVE-2023-22647
aliases:
  - GHSA-p976-h52c-26p6
title: Rancher vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via manipulation of Secrets
summary: Rancher vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via manipulation of Secrets
severity: critical
cvss: 9.9
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'
vendor: rancher
product: github.com/rancher/rancher
ecosystem: go
affected:
  - 'github.com/rancher/rancher >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.13'
  - 'github.com/rancher/rancher >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.4'
patched:
  - github.com/rancher/rancher 2.6.13
  - github.com/rancher/rancher 2.7.4
published: '2023-06-06'
updated: '2026-07-08'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-p976-h52c-26p6'
references:
  - url: 'https://github.com/rancher/rancher/security/advisories/GHSA-p976-h52c-26p6'
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22647'
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2023-22647'
  - url: 'https://github.com/rancher/rancher'
  - url: 'https://github.com/rancher/rancher/releases/tag/v2.6.13'
  - url: 'https://github.com/rancher/rancher/releases/tag/v2.7.4'
tags:
  - osv
  - go
epss: 0.00715
epssPercentile: 0.5231
ingestedAt: '2026-07-09T18:56:36.669Z'
---

## Overview

### Impact

A vulnerability has been identified which enables [Standard users](https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com/how-to-guides/new-user-guides/authentication-permissions-and-global-configuration/manage-role-based-access-control-rbac/global-permissions) or above to elevate their permissions to Administrator in the `local` cluster.

The `local` cluster means the cluster where Rancher is installed. It is named `local` inside the list of clusters in the Rancher UI.

Standard users could leverage their existing permissions to manipulate Kubernetes secrets in the `local` cluster, resulting in the secret being deleted, but their read-level permissions to the secret being preserved. When this operation was followed-up by other specially crafted commands, it could result in the user gaining access to tokens belonging to service accounts in the `local` cluster.

Users that have custom global roles which grant `create` and `delete` permissions on `secrets` would also be able to exploit this vulnerability.

Users with [audit logs enabled](https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com/how-to-guides/advanced-user-guides/enable-api-audit-log#enabling-api-audit-log) in Rancher can try to identify possible abuses of this issue by going through the logs. To sieve through the data filter by `kind: Secret` with `type: provisioning.cattle.io/cloud-credential`, then investigate all log entries that affect that specific resource. A secondary check would be to filter by all operations with `Opaque` Secrets within the `cattle-global-data` namespace.

After patching, it is recommended that users review access methods to Rancher (including RBAC policies, tokens, and host-level node access), to ensure that no changes were made to persist access to users who have leveraged this vulnerability.

### Patches

Patched versions include releases `2.6.13`, `2.7.4` and later versions. 

### Workarounds

There is no direct mitigation besides updating Rancher to a patched version.

### For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

- Reach out to the [SUSE Rancher Security team](https://github.com/rancher/rancher/security/policy) for security related inquiries.
- Open an issue in the [Rancher](https://github.com/rancher/rancher/issues/new/choose) repository.
- Verify with our [support matrix](https://www.suse.com/suse-rancher/support-matrix/all-supported-versions/) and [product support lifecycle](https://www.suse.com/lifecycle/).

## Affected packages

- `github.com/rancher/rancher >= 2.6.0, < 2.6.13`
- `github.com/rancher/rancher >= 2.7.0, < 2.7.4`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `github.com/rancher/rancher 2.6.13`
- `github.com/rancher/rancher 2.7.4`