The vulnerability lies in a flaw that allows an attacker with network‑level visibility between the SUSE Virtualization and Rancher Manager components to interfere with the TLS handshake, effectively bypassing the TLS security control. This flaw, classified as CWE‑295, can lead to a man‑in‑the‑middle attack that compromises confidentiality, and it also enables a denial‑of‑service condition if the handshake is manipulated. The attacker therefore can intercept traffic and potentially disrupt services.

The affected product is SUSE Harvester, versions before 1.8.0. This vulnerability applies to all deployments where the Harvester registration client communicates with the Rancher Manager over the network.

The CVSS score of 8.6 indicates high severity, but the EPSS score of <1% shows that exploitation is unlikely in the current environment, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. The attack vector would be a network‑level attacker situated between the virtual host and the Rancher Manager, who could intercept and manipulate TLS handshakes. While the vulnerability does not grant code execution, it allows an eavesdropper to bypass encryption and may cause service interruption.