The vulnerability allows a malicious NamespacedMutatingPolicy to be created in any namespace managed by the cluster. Because the generator.apply(namespace, resources) call is unvalidated, the admission controller can create ConfigMaps, NetworkPolicies, Secrets, RoleBindings, and other resources in an arbitrary target namespace, including critical namespaces such as kube‑system. This leads to unauthorized modification of resources and a potential privilege escalation vector for attackers with sufficient permissions to create policies.

Kyverno policy engine, versions 1.18.0 and 1.18.1 are vulnerable. The issue has been fixed in version 1.18.2 and later releases.

With a CVSS score of 9.6 this vulnerability is considered critical. No EPSS score is currently available, and it is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. The attack requires the ability to create a NamespacedMutatingPolicy in the cluster, a privilege that typically belongs to cluster administrators or users with edit access to the kyverno namespace. Once a malicious policy is introduced, the cluster‑wide admission controller will execute the policy and create resources in any namespace without further authorization checks.