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CVE Record

CVE-2024-12401: Cert-manager: potential dos when parsing specially crafted pem inputs

A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.

MediumCVSS 4.4Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2024-12401 is a denial-of-service issue in cert-manager. If an attacker already has high privileges to alter PEM certificate data that cert-manager reads, they can make the cert-manager controller consume excessive CPU. This can disrupt certificate automation in a Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster, but it does not expose data or directly grant access.

Executive priority

Prioritize this for clusters where many teams or automation systems can modify Secrets. The business risk is certificate automation outage, which can affect application availability. It is not an emergency internet-wide exposure based on provided evidence, but it should be handled through normal patch and access-control programs.

Technical view

The flaw is improper input handling when cert-manager parses specially crafted PEM data, such as data stored in a Kubernetes Secret. Red Hat rates it Medium with CVSS 4.4: network vector, high complexity, high privileges required, no confidentiality or integrity impact, and high availability impact. Red Hat lists multiple OpenShift-related products and packages as affected.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most relevant in Kubernetes or OpenShift environments using cert-manager or Red Hat products that embed affected cert-manager components. Practical exploitation requires the ability to modify PEM data read by cert-manager, commonly a privileged Secret modification path. Internet exposure alone is not the key risk signal.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not indicate active exploitation, and KEV status is false. The attacker needs high privileges and must influence certificate PEM content consumed by cert-manager. The realistic impact is controller CPU exhaustion and certificate-management disruption, not remote code execution or data theft.

Researcher notes

Key constraints are high privileges and attacker control over PEM content read by cert-manager. The affected-product list is broad in Red Hat packaging, but exact fixed versions are not included in the source bundle. Avoid assuming exploitation in the wild; use vendor advisories and upstream PRs for version-specific triage.

Mitigation direction

  • Review the cert-manager GitHub advisory and Red Hat CVE page for fixed versions and product-specific errata.
  • Update affected cert-manager or Red Hat packaged components when vendor-supported fixes are available.
  • Restrict who can create or modify Secrets and certificate-related resources read by cert-manager.
  • Monitor cert-manager controller CPU usage and restarts for abnormal spikes.
  • Treat suspicious PEM changes in cluster Secrets as security-relevant events.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory clusters running cert-manager or Red Hat products listed as affected.
  • Check installed cert-manager and operator component versions against vendor advisory data.
  • Review RBAC for users or workloads allowed to modify certificate Secrets.
  • Inspect recent changes to Secrets containing PEM certificate data.
  • Confirm cert-manager controller pods are healthy and not CPU-constrained.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
10

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

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cwe · low confidence lookup

CWE-20: Exact CWE lookup

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description · low confidence lookup

Credential and access behavior lookup

The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

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description · low confidence lookup

Container behavior lookup

The affected technology mentions containers, so container-specific ATT&CK technique review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

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CVE-2024-12401 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Medium
CVSS
4.4 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
5Timeline events
1ADP providers
9Source links

SSVC decision data

CISA-ADPCISA Coordinator
Timestamp
Version
2.0.3
Exploitation: noneAutomatable: noTechnical Impact: partial

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
4.4CVSS 3.1MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H0.73.6redhat

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

4.4Medium
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2024-12401Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. Source timelineredhat

    Made public.

  2. Source timelineredhat

    Reported to Red Hat.

  3. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  4. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  5. CVE updatedCVE Program

    The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.

ADP provider summaries

CISA-ADPCISA ADP Vulnrichment
other:ssvc

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
Unknown vendorcert-managercert-manager, 0, 1.13.0-alpha.0, 1.16.0-alpha.0unaffected
Red Hatcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShiftcert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-acmesolver-rhel9affected
Red Hatcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShiftcert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-rhel9affected
Red Hatcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShiftcert-manager-operator-bundle-containeraffected
Red Hatcert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShiftcert-manager-operator-containeraffected
Red HatCryostat 3cryostat-tech-preview/cryostat-rhel8-operatoraffected
Red HatMulticluster Engine for Kubernetesmulticluster-engine/assisted-service-8-rhel8affected
Red HatMulticluster Engine for Kubernetesmulticluster-engine/assisted-service-9-rhel9affected
Red HatOpenShift Serverlessopenshift-serverless-1/serving-activator-rhel8affected
Red HatOpenShift Serverlessopenshift-serverless-1/serving-autoscaler-hpa-rhel8affected
Red HatOpenShift Serverlessopenshift-serverless-1/serving-autoscaler-rhel8affected
Red HatOpenShift Serverlessopenshift-serverless-1/serving-controller-rhel8affected
Red HatOpenShift Serverlessopenshift-serverless-1/serving-queue-rhel8affected
Red HatOpenShift Serverlessopenshift-serverless-1/serving-storage-version-migration-rhel8affected
Red HatOpenShift Serverlessopenshift-serverless-1/serving-webhook-rhel8affected
Red HatRed Hat Connectivity Link 1rhcl-operator-bundle-containeraffected
Red HatRed Hat Connectivity Link 1rhcl-operator-containeraffected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4openshift4/ose-agent-installer-api-server-rhel9affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4openshift4/ose-contour-rhel8affected
Red HatRed Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4odf4/rook-ceph-rhel8-operatoraffected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift GitOpsopenshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operatoraffected
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-20

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-20 · source CWE mapping

Improper Input Validation

Improper Input Validation represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

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