The flaw is that the Instana Agent Operator constructs cluster‑scoped RBAC objects keyed only by the name of the InstanaAgent custom resource, with no namespace disambiguation. An attacker who can create an InstanaAgent resource within the same Kubernetes cluster can employ a same‑named InstanaAgent CR in an attacker‑controlled namespace to silently overwrite the shared ClusterRoleBinding that grants cluster‑monitoring permissions to the victim agent, or delete it outright. This allows the attacker to hijack the victim’s monitoring rights or permanently remove the victim’s ability to monitor the cluster. The weakness is a privilege‑escalation vulnerability (CWE‑284).

IBM Observability with Instana (Agent) builds 1.0.303 through 1.0.323 are vulnerable. The recommended remediation is to update to the latest release of IBM Observability with Instana, which removes the flaw. No other IBM products are specified as affected in the CNA data.

The CVSS score of 9.6 marks this as a Critical vulnerability. Although the EPSS score is not available, the lack of measurement does not mitigate the inherent risk. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA KEV, but the nature of the flaw— allowing an authenticated Kubernetes tenant to overwrite or delete cluster‑level RBAC permissions—means an attacker with moderate cluster access could inflict significant damage. An attacker must have the ability to create or delete InstanaAgent CRs in the cluster, a realistic capability in many multi‑tenant scenarios.