{"id":"CVE-2024-12401","aliases":["AZL-54313","AZL-54324","EUVD-2024-3471","GHSA-ghw8-3xqw-hhcj","GHSA-r4pg-vg54-wxx4","GO-2024-3282","openSUSE-SU-2024:14599-1"],"status":"published","title":"Cert-manager: potential dos when parsing specially crafted pem inputs","description":"A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-09","score":0.00673,"percentile":0.52385,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":true},"cwes":["CWE-20"],"published":"2024-11-20T20:48:11Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:31:03Z","fixes":[{"ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","fixed_in":["1.12.14","1.15.4","1.16.2"],"sources":["ghsa","osv"]},{"ecosystem":"Azure Linux:2","package":"cert-manager","fixed_in":["1.11.2-18"],"sources":["osv"]},{"ecosystem":"Azure Linux:3","package":"cert-manager","fixed_in":["1.12.15-1"],"sources":["osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"1.12.14"}]}]},{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"1.13.0-alpha.0"},{"fixed":"1.15.4"}]}]},{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"1.16.0-alpha.0"},{"fixed":"1.16.2"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Azure Linux:2","package":"cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"1.11.2-18"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Azure Linux:3","package":"cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"1.12.15-1"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"1.12.14"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"1.13.0-alpha.0"},{"fixed":"1.15.4"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"1.16.0-alpha.0"},{"fixed":"1.16.2"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"1.12.14"},{"introduced":"1.13.0-alpha.0"},{"fixed":"1.15.4"},{"introduced":"1.16.0-alpha.0"},{"fixed":"1.16.2"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"openSUSE:Tumbleweed","package":"govulncheck-vulndb","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"0.0.20241213T205935-1.1"}]}],"bundled":21}],"products":[{"vendor":"red hat","product":"cert-manager operator for red hat openshift"},{"vendor":"red hat","product":"cryostat 3"},{"vendor":"red hat","product":"multicluster engine for kubernetes"},{"vendor":"red hat","product":"openshift serverless"},{"vendor":"red hat","product":"red hat connectivity link 1"},{"vendor":"red hat","product":"red hat openshift container platform 4"},{"vendor":"red hat","product":"red hat openshift data foundation 4"},{"vendor":"red hat","product":"red hat openshift gitops"}],"references":[{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-12401","tags":["vdb-entry","x_refsource_REDHAT","advisory","web"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2327929","tags":["issue-tracking","x_refsource_REDHAT","report","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7400","tags":["fix","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7401","tags":["fix","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7402","tags":["fix","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7403","tags":["fix","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/security/advisories/GHSA-r4pg-vg54-wxx4","tags":["advisory","web"]},{"url":"https://go.dev/issue/50116","tags":["web","report"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-12401","tags":["web","advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-ghw8-3xqw-hhcj"},{"url":"https://github.com/golang/go/issues/50116","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2024-3282","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/commit/3a4c9eb55e2e43570679840bbe3217869fbc8efc","tags":["web","fix"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/commit/f22f78c8c0a64d718e203b326bc844c488ad7850","tags":["web","fix"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-r4pg-vg54-wxx4"},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://catalog.redhat.com/software/containers/","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2024/12xxx/CVE-2024-12401.json","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","tags":["package"]},{"url":"https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/security-announce@lists.opensuse.org/thread/QTUY324RV3FFZBHVIWDHRCIOPJHIJIN4/","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-10696","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8912","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-31668","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-26248","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-3676","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-3955","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-12401","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-37032","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-44337","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-45039","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-45337","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-45436","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-46455","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-46528","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-53257","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-53859","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-55601","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-55657","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-55658","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-55659","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-55660","tags":["web"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2024-12401","title":"Cert-manager: potential dos when parsing specially crafted pem inputs","description":"A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"published","published":"2024-12-12T09:06:03.612Z","modified":"2026-06-26T04:27:26.59Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-20"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:34:12.287582Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2024-3471","description":"A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"published","published":"2024-12-12T09:06:03Z","modified":"2026-06-26T04:27:26Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T18:20:24.957062Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-ghw8-3xqw-hhcj","title":"Duplicate Advisory: cert-manager ha a potential slowdown / DoS when parsing specially crafted PEM inputs","description":"# Duplicate Advisory\n\nThis advisory has been withdrawn because it is a duplicate of GHSA-r4pg-vg54-wxx4. This link is maintained to preserve external references.\n\n# Original Description\n\nA flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"withdrawn","published":"2024-12-12T09:31:36Z","modified":"2024-12-12T19:19:50Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-20"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:38:25.334027Z"},{"id":"GHSA-r4pg-vg54-wxx4","title":"cert-manager ha a potential slowdown / DoS when parsing specially crafted PEM inputs","description":"### Impact\n\ncert-manager packages which call the standard library `pem.Decode()` function  can take a long time to process specially crafted invalid PEM data.\n\nIf an attacker is able to modify PEM data which cert-manager reads (e.g. in a Secret resource), they may be able to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for cert-manager in the cluster.\n\nSecrets are limited in size to [1MiB](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/#restriction-data-size), which reduces the impact of this issue; it was discovered through an ~856kB fuzz test input which causes `pem.Decode` to take roughly 750ms to reject the input on an M2 Max Macbook Pro. By way of comparison, a valid PEM-encoded 4096-bit RSA key takes roughly 70µs to parse on the same machine.\n\nGiven the required size of PEM data needed to present a realistic DoS vector, an attacker would need to create or insert many different large sized resources in the cluster, and so the best secondary defense is to ensure that sensible limits are placed via RBAC.\n\nThis issue affects all versions of cert-manager to have been released since at least v0.1.0 (since `pem.Decode` is core functionality for cert-manager). All [supported releases](https://cert-manager.io/docs/releases/) are patched.\n\n### Patches\n\nThe fixed versions are v1.16.2, v1.15.4 and v1.12.14.\n\n- master branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7400\n- release-1.16 branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7401\n- release-1.15 branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7402\n- release-1.12 branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7403\n\n### Workarounds\n\nEnsure that RBAC is scoped correctly in your cluster. If a user is able to modify resources containing PEM data to be able to exploit this, it's like that those permissions are a bigger security threat than this issue - especially for Secret resources.\n\n### References\n\n- Upstream issue: https://github.com/golang/go/issues/50116\n- Similar issue: https://github.com/sigstore/sigstore/issues/198\n- Google OSSFuzz: https://issues.oss-fuzz.com/issues/376728466","status":"published","published":"2024-11-20T20:48:11Z","modified":"2026-06-05T21:21:55Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":6.9,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:40:17.745826Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2024-12401","description":"A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"published","published":"2024-12-12T09:15:05.79Z","modified":"2026-06-26T05:16:25.573Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"secondary"}],"cwes":["CWE-20"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:10:39.792395Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"AZL-54313","title":"CVE-2024-12401 affecting package cert-manager for versions less than 1.11.2-18","description":"A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"published","published":"2024-12-12T09:15:05Z","modified":"2026-04-21T04:35:32.221477Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:28:06.879785Z"},{"id":"AZL-54324","title":"CVE-2024-12401 affecting package cert-manager for versions less than 1.12.15-1","description":"A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"published","published":"2024-12-12T09:15:05Z","modified":"2026-04-21T04:49:42.028256Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:28:06.879785Z"},{"id":"CVE-2024-12401","title":"Cert-manager: potential dos when parsing specially crafted pem inputs","description":"A flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"published","published":"2024-12-12T09:06:03.612Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:31:03.92223983Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-20"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:44:37.917085Z"},{"id":"GHSA-ghw8-3xqw-hhcj","title":"Duplicate Advisory: cert-manager ha a potential slowdown / DoS when parsing specially crafted PEM inputs","description":"# Duplicate Advisory\n\nThis advisory has been withdrawn because it is a duplicate of GHSA-r4pg-vg54-wxx4. This link is maintained to preserve external references.\n\n# Original Description\n\nA flaw was found in the cert-manager package. This flaw allows an attacker who can modify PEM data that the cert-manager reads, for example, in a Secret resource, to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for the cert-manager in the cluster.","status":"withdrawn","published":"2024-12-12T09:31:36Z","modified":"2026-09-10T03:50:56.211010829Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":4.4,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-20"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:47.822182Z"},{"id":"GHSA-r4pg-vg54-wxx4","title":"cert-manager ha a potential slowdown / DoS when parsing specially crafted PEM inputs","description":"### Impact\n\ncert-manager packages which call the standard library `pem.Decode()` function  can take a long time to process specially crafted invalid PEM data.\n\nIf an attacker is able to modify PEM data which cert-manager reads (e.g. in a Secret resource), they may be able to use large amounts of CPU in the cert-manager controller pod to effectively create a denial-of-service (DoS) vector for cert-manager in the cluster.\n\nSecrets are limited in size to [1MiB](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/#restriction-data-size), which reduces the impact of this issue; it was discovered through an ~856kB fuzz test input which causes `pem.Decode` to take roughly 750ms to reject the input on an M2 Max Macbook Pro. By way of comparison, a valid PEM-encoded 4096-bit RSA key takes roughly 70µs to parse on the same machine.\n\nGiven the required size of PEM data needed to present a realistic DoS vector, an attacker would need to create or insert many different large sized resources in the cluster, and so the best secondary defense is to ensure that sensible limits are placed via RBAC.\n\nThis issue affects all versions of cert-manager to have been released since at least v0.1.0 (since `pem.Decode` is core functionality for cert-manager). All [supported releases](https://cert-manager.io/docs/releases/) are patched.\n\n### Patches\n\nThe fixed versions are v1.16.2, v1.15.4 and v1.12.14.\n\n- master branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7400\n- release-1.16 branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7401\n- release-1.15 branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7402\n- release-1.12 branch: https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/pull/7403\n\n### Workarounds\n\nEnsure that RBAC is scoped correctly in your cluster. If a user is able to modify resources containing PEM data to be able to exploit this, it's like that those permissions are a bigger security threat than this issue - especially for Secret resources.\n\n### References\n\n- Upstream issue: https://github.com/golang/go/issues/50116\n- Similar issue: https://github.com/sigstore/sigstore/issues/198\n- Google OSSFuzz: https://issues.oss-fuzz.com/issues/376728466","status":"published","published":"2024-11-20T20:48:11Z","modified":"2026-09-10T03:50:20.950564072Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":6.9,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:55.480549Z"},{"id":"GO-2024-3282","title":"Potential slowdown / DoS when parsing specially crafted PEM inputs in github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","description":"Potential slowdown / DoS when parsing specially crafted PEM inputs in github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager","status":"published","published":"2024-11-21T19:52:52Z","modified":"2026-02-04T03:32:41.678655Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:47:01.453823Z"},{"id":"openSUSE-SU-2024:14599-1","title":"govulncheck-vulndb-0.0.20241213T205935-1.1 on GA media","description":"These are all security issues fixed in the govulncheck-vulndb-0.0.20241213T205935-1.1 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.","status":"published","published":"2024-12-18T00:00:00Z","modified":"2026-02-04T02:20:26.243259Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T16:58:36.976155Z"}]}}