CVE-2019-11253

Kubernetes API Server JSON/YAML parsing vulnerable to resource exhaustion attack

At a glance

Severity: HIGH 7.5
EPSS: EPSS 25.94 % · percentile 98 (2026-10-27)
State: PUBLISHED
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2024-09-16
Assigner: kubernetes
NVD status: Analyzed

Description

Improper input validation in the Kubernetes API server in versions v1.0-1.12 and versions prior to v1.13.12, v1.14.8, v1.15.5, and v1.16.2 allows authorized users to send malicious YAML or JSON payloads, causing the API server to consume excessive CPU or memory, potentially crashing and becoming unavailable. Prior to v1.14.0, default RBAC policy authorized anonymous users to submit requests that could trigger this vulnerability. Clusters upgraded from a version prior to v1.14.0 keep the more permissive policy by default for backwards compatibility.

Scores

Version	Score	Vector	Scored by
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H	kubernetes
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H	NVD · jordan@liggitt.net (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)
CVSS 2.0	MEDIUM 5.0	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

Weaknesses (CWE)

Advisories

GHSA-pmqp-h87c-mr78 — XML Entity Expansion and Improper Input Validation in Kubernetes API server
GO-2022-0703 — XML Entity Expansion and Improper Input Validation in Kubernetes API server in k8s.io/kubernetes

European references

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2021-1151
GCVE · GCVE-0-2019-11253

CERT-FR advisories

CERTFR-2025-AVI-0279 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2022-AVI-591 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubernetes:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 1.1.0 ≤ 1.12.10
cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubernetes:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 1.13.0 < 1.13.12
cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubernetes:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 1.14.0 < 1.14.8
cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubernetes:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 1.15.0 < 1.15.5
cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubernetes:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 1.16.0 < 1.16.2
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:3.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:3.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:3.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Affected products

Product	Versions
Kubernetes · Kubernetes	affected prior to 1.13.12 ; affected prior to 1.14.8 ; affected prior to 1.15.5 ; affected prior to 1.16.2 ; affected 1.1 ; affected 1.2

References

Sources

Source	Licence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)	CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)	FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVD	ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)	Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds	Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD