Tekton Pipelines 1.0-1.11.1: Git Resolver Code Execution via Unvalidated Flags
CVE-2026-40938 Published on April 21, 2026
Tekton Pipelines: Git Resolver Unsanitized Revision Parameter Enables git Argument Injection Leading to RCE
Tekton Pipelines project provides k8s-style resources for declaring CI/CD-style pipelines. Starting in version 1.0.0 and prior to versions 1.0.2, 1.3.4, 1.6.2, 1.9.3, and 1.11.1, the git resolver's revision parameter is passed directly as a positional argument to git fetch without any validation that it does not begin with a - character. Because git parses flags from mixed positional arguments, an attacker can inject arbitrary git fetch flags such as --upload-pack=<binary>. Combined with the validateRepoURL function explicitly permitting URLs that begin with / (local filesystem paths), a tenant who can submit ResolutionRequest objects can chain these two behaviors to execute an arbitrary binary on the resolver pod. The tekton-pipelines-resolvers ServiceAccount holds cluster-wide get/list/watch on all Secrets, so code execution on the resolver pod enables full cluster-wide secret exfiltration. Versions 1.0.2, 1.3.4, 1.6.2, 1.9.3, and 1.11.1 fix the issue.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-40938 is exploitable with network access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. Public availability of a proof of concept (POC) exploit exists for CVE-2026-40938. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.
Weakness Type
What is an Argument Injection Vulnerability?
The software constructs a string for a command to executed by a separate component in another control sphere, but it does not properly delimit the intended arguments, options, or switches within that command string.
CVE-2026-40938 has been classified to as an Argument Injection vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-40938
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Affected Versions
tektoncd pipeline:- Version >= 1.0.0, < 1.0.2 is affected.
- Version >= 1.2.0, < 1.3.4 is affected.
- Version >= 1.4.0, < 1.6.2 is affected.
- Version >= 1.7.0, < 1.9.3 is affected.
- Version >= 1.10.0, < 1.11.1 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.