Vulnerability · Published Jul 23, 2025 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2025-47281Kyverno's Improper JMESPath Variable Evaluation Leads to Denial of Service
High 7.7
In plain English
A high-severity improper input validation in kyverno from kyverno. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.6% (higher than 46% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. In versions 1.14.1 and below, a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability exists due to improper handling of JMESPath variable substitutions. Attackers with permissions to create or update Kyverno policies can craft expressions using the {{@}} variable combined with a pipe and an invalid JMESPath function (e.g., {{@ | non_existent_function }}). This leads to a nil value being substituted into the policy structure. Subsequent processing by internal functions, specifically getValueAsStringMap, which expect string values, results in a panic due to a type assertion failure (interface {} is nil, not string). This crashes Kyverno worker threads in the admission controller and causes continuous crashes of the reports controller pod. This is fixed in version 1.14.2.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go | github.com/kyverno/kyverno | 1.14.2 | GHSA-r5p3-955p-5ggq |
| Go | github.com/kyverno/kyverno | 1.14.2 | GO-2025-3823 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-20, CWE-248 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H