Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
An authenticated Rancher user holding the default user global role can potentially turn Rancher’s own impersonation mechanism against it, gaining full control of the Rancher control plane and every managed downstream cluster. Because one compromised account could create organization-wide cluster impact, affected deployments require urgent upgrading and investigation.
Executive priority
Treat this as an emergency control-plane upgrade. A single eligible authenticated account could become an administrator across the entire Rancher-managed environment. Prioritize internet-accessible, shared, production, and high-value deployments, then investigate for suspicious administrative activity. The supplied evidence does not confirm exploitation, but the potential blast radius justifies immediate action.
Technical view
Rancher’s impersonation middleware contains a cross-cluster confused-deputy privilege escalation in pkg/auth/requests/impersonate.go. The issue crosses a security boundary and may compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability across the control plane and downstream clusters. It is classified under CWE-441 and CWE-497 with CVSS 3.1 score 9.1.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to Rancher 2.11.0–2.11.15, 2.12.0–2.12.11, 2.13.0–2.13.7, and 2.14.0–2.14.1. An attacker requires an authenticated Rancher account with the default user global role. A successful escalation can affect all downstream clusters managed by that control plane.
Exploitation context
The supplied sources describe a low-complexity, network-reachable attack requiring authenticated Rancher access and no user interaction. They do not establish active exploitation, and the CVE is not identified as being in CISA KEV. Public patch information may help defenders understand the flaw, but exploitation in the wild is unconfirmed.
Researcher notes
The affected component is Rancher’s impersonation request middleware. The vulnerability is characterized as a cross-cluster confused-deputy condition with information exposure implications. The supplied bundle identifies the vulnerable path and fixed release boundaries but does not provide sufficient evidence to describe exact request mechanics, detection signatures, or confirmed exploitation safely.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade to Rancher 2.11.16, 2.12.12, 2.13.8, 2.14.2, or a later appropriate release.
- Follow the Rancher advisory and SUSE guidance for branch-specific upgrade requirements.
- Until upgraded, tightly restrict Rancher access and review accounts holding the default user global role.
- Prioritize credential protection and monitoring for Rancher control-plane users.
Validation and detection
- Inventory every Rancher control plane and compare its exact version with the affected ranges.
- Confirm upgraded systems report a fixed or later version in their appropriate release branch.
- Review default user global-role assignments for unexpected, dormant, or compromised accounts.
- Examine Rancher and downstream-cluster audit records for unexplained administrative actions or impersonation activity.
- Verify security monitoring covers both the Rancher control plane and every managed downstream cluster.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
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
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-441: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCWE-497: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupPrivilege behavior lookup
The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-44945 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.1 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
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.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe 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.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H2.36suseVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
9.1CriticalVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/rancher/rancher/pull/55983CVE reference, suse · patch
- https://github.com/rancher/rancher/security/advisories/GHSA-v584-7w32-jwpqCVE reference, suse · vendor-advisory
- https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2026-44945CVE reference, suse · issue-tracking
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Unintended Proxy or Intermediary ('Confused Deputy')
Unintended Proxy or Intermediary ('Confused Deputy') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere
Exposure of Sensitive System Information to an Unauthorized Control Sphere represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.