CVE-2022-43757
Rancher: Exposure of sensitive fields
A Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users on managed clusters to gain access to credentials. The impact depends on the credentials exposed This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.17; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.10; Rancher versions prior to 2.7.1.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- Low
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
Rancher: Exposure of sensitive fields
A Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users on managed clusters to gain access to credentials. The impact depends on the credentials exposed This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.17; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.10; Rancher versions prior to 2.7.1.
- Record
CVE-2022-43757- CVSS 3.1
- 9.9 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-312
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2023-0449
A Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users on managed clusters to gain access to credentials. The impact depends on the credentials exposed This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.17; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.10; Rancher versions prior to 2.7.1.
- Record
EUVD-2023-0449- CVSS 3.1
- 9.9 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522
Plaintext storage of sensitive data in Rancher API and cluster.management.cattle.io objects
Impact
This issue affects Rancher versions from 2.5.0 up to and including 2.5.16, from 2.6.0 up to and including 2.6.9 and 2.7.0. It was discovered that the security advisory CVE-2021-36782 (GHSA-g7j7-h4q8-8w2f), previously released by Rancher, missed addressing some sensitive fields, secret tokens, encryption keys, and SSH keys that were still being stored in plaintext directly on Kubernetes objects like Clusters.
The exposed credentials are visible in Rancher to authenticated Cluster Owners, Cluster Members, Project Owners and Project Members of that cluster on the endpoints:
/v1/management.cattle.io.cluster/v1/management.cattle.io.clustertemplaterevisions
The remaining sensitive fields are now stripped from Clusters and other objects and moved to a Secret before the object is stored. The Secret is retrieved when the credential is needed. For objects that existed before this security fix, a one-time migration happens on startup.
The fields that have been addressed by this security fix are:
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESGCM.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESCBC.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].SecretboxConfiguration.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.Kubelet.ExtraEnvwhen containing theAWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYenvironment variableCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.BastionHost.SSHKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSecretAccessKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSessionTokenCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.ApicUserKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.KafkaClientKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.Token
Important:
-
For the exposure of credentials not related to Rancher, the final impact severity for confidentiality, integrity and availability is dependent on the permissions the leaked credentials have on their services.
-
It is recommended to review for potentially leaked credentials in this scenario and to change them if deemed necessary.
Workarounds
There is no direct mitigation besides updating Rancher to a patched version.
Patches
Patched versions include releases 2.5.17, 2.6.10, 2.7.1 and later versions.
After upgrading to a patched version, it is important to check for the ACISecretsMigrated and RKESecretsMigrated conditions on Clusters and ClusterTemplateRevisions to confirm when secrets have been fully migrated off of those objects, and the objects scoped within them.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Reach out to SUSE Rancher Security team for security related inquiries.
- Open an issue in Rancher repository.
- Verify our support matrix and product support lifecycle.
- Record
GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522- CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-200, CWE-256, CWE-312
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
A Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users on managed clusters to gain access to credentials. The impact depends on the credentials exposed This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.17; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.10; Rancher versions prior to 2.7.1.
- Record
CVE-2022-43757- CVSS 3.1
- 9.9 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-312
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
Rancher: Exposure of sensitive fields
A Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows users on managed clusters to gain access to credentials. The impact depends on the credentials exposed This issue affects: SUSE Rancher Rancher versions prior to 2.5.17; Rancher versions prior to 2.6.10; Rancher versions prior to 2.7.1.
- Record
CVE-2022-43757- CVSS 3.1
- 9.9 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-312
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522
Plaintext storage of sensitive data in Rancher API and cluster.management.cattle.io objects
Impact
This issue affects Rancher versions from 2.5.0 up to and including 2.5.16, from 2.6.0 up to and including 2.6.9 and 2.7.0. It was discovered that the security advisory CVE-2021-36782 (GHSA-g7j7-h4q8-8w2f), previously released by Rancher, missed addressing some sensitive fields, secret tokens, encryption keys, and SSH keys that were still being stored in plaintext directly on Kubernetes objects like Clusters.
The exposed credentials are visible in Rancher to authenticated Cluster Owners, Cluster Members, Project Owners and Project Members of that cluster on the endpoints:
/v1/management.cattle.io.cluster/v1/management.cattle.io.clustertemplaterevisions
The remaining sensitive fields are now stripped from Clusters and other objects and moved to a Secret before the object is stored. The Secret is retrieved when the credential is needed. For objects that existed before this security fix, a one-time migration happens on startup.
The fields that have been addressed by this security fix are:
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESGCM.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESCBC.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].SecretboxConfiguration.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.Kubelet.ExtraEnvwhen containing theAWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYenvironment variableCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.BastionHost.SSHKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSecretAccessKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSessionTokenCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.ApicUserKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.KafkaClientKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.Token
Important:
-
For the exposure of credentials not related to Rancher, the final impact severity for confidentiality, integrity and availability is dependent on the permissions the leaked credentials have on their services.
-
It is recommended to review for potentially leaked credentials in this scenario and to change them if deemed necessary.
Workarounds
There is no direct mitigation besides updating Rancher to a patched version.
Patches
Patched versions include releases 2.5.17, 2.6.10, 2.7.1 and later versions.
After upgrading to a patched version, it is important to check for the ACISecretsMigrated and RKESecretsMigrated conditions on Clusters and ClusterTemplateRevisions to confirm when secrets have been fully migrated off of those objects, and the objects scoped within them.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Reach out to SUSE Rancher Security team for security related inquiries.
- Open an issue in Rancher repository.
- Verify our support matrix and product support lifecycle.
- Record
GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522- CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-200, CWE-256, CWE-312
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
github.com/rancher/rancherGo |
2.5.0 up to 2.5.17 | 2.5.17 |
github.com/rancher/rancherGo |
2.6.0 up to 2.6.10 | 2.6.10 |
github.com/rancher/rancherGo |
2.7.0 up to 2.7.1 | 2.7.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| first indexed | CVE List, EUVD, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2022-43757 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.9) in Suse Rancher, published January 25, 2023. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.55%, the 46th percentile. Fixed in github.com/rancher/rancher 2.5.17.