Threat intelligence dashboard
CVE-2026-61549critical

Woodpecker: Privilege escalation via unrestricted serviceAccountName in the Kubernetes backend

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.

Risk score

9.0

CVSS 4.0

Vendor
woodpecker-ci
Product
woodpecker
CWE
CWE-269, CWE-862
Published
Sep 15, 2026
Updated
Sep 16, 2026
CISA KEV
Not flagged