CVE-2025-32445: Privileged Access Vulnerability in Argo Events Framework for Kubernetes

Overview

CVE-2025-32445 is a significant security vulnerability that affects the Argo Events framework, an event-driven workflow automation system for Kubernetes. Individuals or entities with the ability to create or modify EventSource and Sensor custom resources can exploit this vulnerability to gain privileged access to the host system or cluster, even if they do not have direct administrative privileges. This is a cause for concern as it could potentially lead to system compromise or data leakage.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-32445
Severity: Critical (9.9 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Argo Events | Up to v1.9.5

How the Exploit Works

This exploit works by manipulating properties within the EventSource and Sensor custom resources. The orchestration pod corresponding to these CRs can be customized with spec.template and spec.template.container (with type k8s.io/api/core/v1.Container). This customization allows for specifications under the container such as command, args, securityContext, and volumeMount. If a user specifies the EventSource/Sensor CR with particular properties under template, they can gain privileged access to the cluster host.

Conceptual Example Code

The following is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. In this case, a malicious user modifies the EventSource or Sensor custom resource to gain privileged access to the host system. This is provided for illustration purposes only and is not actual exploit code.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: EventSource
metadata:
name: example-eventsource
spec:
template:
container:
command: ["bin/bash"]
args: ["-c", "cat /etc/shadow"]
securityContext:
runAsUser: 0
runAsGroup: 0
fsGroup: 0

In the example above, the user is using the command shell “bin/bash” to read the shadow file, which contains the hashed password data for system users. They’ve set the securityContext to run as root (0), effectively gaining privileged access to the host system.