Vulnerability · Published Sep 15, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-61549Woodpecker: Privilege escalation via unrestricted serviceAccountName in the Kubernetes backend

Critical 9.0

In plain English

A critical-severity privilege mismanagement in woodpecker from woodpecker-ci. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 20% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 4.0)9.0Critical

Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 79.7% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Woodpecker is a CI/CD engine. From 1.0.0 until 3.16.0, pipeline/backend/kubernetes/backend_options.go defines backend_options.kubernetes.serviceAccountName, and the Kubernetes backend in pipeline/backend/kubernetes/pod.go copies that pipeline-step value directly into the pod specification without administrator authorization. Any user with Push permission on a connected repository can therefore run pipeline pods under an arbitrary ServiceAccount in the pipeline namespace and inherit that account's RBAC permissions. When a privileged ServiceAccount is reachable, the attacker can exfiltrate secrets such as database credentials, API keys, and TLS certificates and may take over the cluster. This issue is fixed in version 3.16.0.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
Go	github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker	no fix listed	GO-2026-5992
Go	github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker	no fix listed	GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8
Go	go.woodpecker-ci.org/woodpecker	no fix listed	GO-2026-5992
Go	go.woodpecker-ci.org/woodpecker/v2	no fix listed	GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8
Go	go.woodpecker-ci.org/woodpecker/v2	no fix listed	GO-2026-5992
Go	go.woodpecker-ci.org/woodpecker/v3	3.16.0	GO-2026-5992
Go	go.woodpecker-ci.org/woodpecker/v3	3.16.0	GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
woodpecker-ci	woodpecker	>= 1.0.0, < 3.16.0

Weakness: CWE-269, CWE-862 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

References

https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/security/advisories/GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8 x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/pull/6792 x_refsource_MISC
https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/commit/5df9d52260626c074c6caafb2dc83d3bc6b53be1 x_refsource_MISC
https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/commit/609ba481b5e912f59aaae8ca7bc22b44523c5e37 x_refsource_MISC
https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/releases/tag/v3.16.0 x_refsource_MISC