CVE-2023-37900
Crossplane vulnerable to denial of service from large image
Crossplane is a framework for building cloud native control planes without needing to write code. In versions prior to 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0, a high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled. The impact is limited due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller. This issue is fixed in versions 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- High
- User interaction
- Required
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
3.4
Crossplane vulnerable to denial of service from large image
Crossplane is a framework for building cloud native control planes without needing to write code. In versions prior to 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0, a high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled. The impact is limited due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller. This issue is fixed in versions 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0.
- Record
CVE-2023-37900- CVSS 3.1
- 3.4 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400, CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2023-1975
3.4
Crossplane is a framework for building cloud native control planes without needing to write code. In versions prior to 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0, a high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled. The impact is limited due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller. This issue is fixed in versions 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0.
- Record
EUVD-2023-1975- CVSS 3.1
- 3.4 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-68p4-95xf-7gx8
3.4
Denial of service from large image
Impact
An high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled.
The impact is low due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller.
Patches
The problem has been fixed in 1.11.5, 1.12.3 and 1.13.0, all the supported versions of Crossplane at the time of writing.
Workarounds
Only using images from trusted sources and keeping Package editing/creating privileges to administrators only, which should be both considered already best practices.
References
See ADA-XP-23-16 in the Security Audit's report.
Credits
This was reported as ADA-XP-23-16 by @AdamKorcz and @DavidKorczynski from Ada Logic and facilitated by OSTIF as part of the Security Audit sponsored by CNCF.
- Record
GHSA-68p4-95xf-7gx8- CVSS 3.1
- 3.4 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
3.4
Crossplane is a framework for building cloud native control planes without needing to write code. In versions prior to 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0, a high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled. The impact is limited due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller. This issue is fixed in versions 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0.
- Record
CVE-2023-37900- CVSS 3.1
- 3.4 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - CVSS 3.1
- 2.7 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400, CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
3.4
Crossplane vulnerable to denial of service from large image
Crossplane is a framework for building cloud native control planes without needing to write code. In versions prior to 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0, a high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled. The impact is limited due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller. This issue is fixed in versions 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0.
- Record
CVE-2023-37900- CVSS 3.1
- 3.4 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400, CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-68p4-95xf-7gx8
3.4
Denial of service from large image
Impact
An high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled.
The impact is low due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller.
Patches
The problem has been fixed in 1.11.5, 1.12.3 and 1.13.0, all the supported versions of Crossplane at the time of writing.
Workarounds
Only using images from trusted sources and keeping Package editing/creating privileges to administrators only, which should be both considered already best practices.
References
See ADA-XP-23-16 in the Security Audit's report.
Credits
This was reported as ADA-XP-23-16 by @AdamKorcz and @DavidKorczynski from Ada Logic and facilitated by OSTIF as part of the Security Audit sponsored by CNCF.
- Record
GHSA-68p4-95xf-7gx8- CVSS 3.1
- 3.4 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-400
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVBIT-crossplane-2023-37900 No score
Crossplane vulnerable to denial of service from large image
Crossplane is a framework for building cloud native control planes without needing to write code. In versions prior to 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0, a high-privileged user could create a Package referencing an arbitrarily large image containing that Crossplane would then parse, possibly resulting in exhausting all the available memory and therefore in the container being OOMKilled. The impact is limited due to the high privileges required to be able to create the Package and the eventually consistency nature of controller. This issue is fixed in versions 1.11.5, 1.12.3, and 1.13.0.
- Record
BIT-crossplane-2023-37900- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGO-2023-1979 No score
Denial of service from large image in github.com/crossplane/crossplane
Denial of service from large image in github.com/crossplane/crossplane
- Record
GO-2023-1979- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
github.com/crossplane/crossplaneGo |
before 1.11.5 | 1.11.5 |
github.com/crossplane/crossplaneGo |
1.12.0 up to 1.12.3 | 1.12.3 |
crossplaneBitnami |
before 1.11.5, 1.12.0 up to 1.12.3 | 1.11.51.12.3 |
github.com/crossplane/crossplaneGo |
before 1.11.5, 1.12.0 up to 1.12.3 | 1.11.51.12.3 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases, published | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2023-37900 is a low vulnerability (CVSS 3.4) in Cncf Crossplane, published July 27, 2023. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.62%, the 49th percentile. Fixed in github.com/crossplane/crossplane 1.11.5.
References
github.com/crossplane/crossplane/security/advisories/GHSA-68p4-95xf-7gx8
github.com/crossplane/crossplane/blob/ac8b24fe739c5d942ea885157148497f196c3dd3/security/ADA-security-audit-23.pdf
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-37900
github.com/advisories/GHSA-68p4-95xf-7gx8
github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/37xxx/CVE-2023-37900.json
github.com/crossplane/crossplane