CVE-2026-40109

CVE-2026-40109 is a low-severity vulnerability with a CVSS 3.x base score of 3.1. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-287.

Key facts

Description

Flux notification-controller is the event forwarder and notification dispatcher for the GitOps Toolkit controllers. Prior to 1.8.3, the gcr Receiver type in Flux notification-controller does not validate the email claim of Google OIDC tokens used for Pub/Sub push authentication. This allows any valid Google-issued token, to authenticate against the Receiver webhook endpoint, triggering unauthorized Flux reconciliations. Exploitation requires the attacker to know the Receiver's webhook URL. The webhook path is generated as /hook/sha256sum(token+name+namespace), where the token is a random string stored in a Kubernetes Secret. There is no API or endpoint that enumerates webhook URLs. An attacker cannot discover the path without either having access to the cluster and permissions to read the Receiver's .status.webhookPath in the target namespace, or obtaining the URL through other means (e.g. leaked secrets or access to Pub/Sub config). Upon successful authentication, the controller triggers a reconciliation for all resources listed in the Receiver's .spec.resources. However, the practical impact is limited: Flux reconciliation is idempotent, so if the desired state in the configured sources (Git, OCI, Helm) has not changed, the reconciliation results in a no-op with no effect on cluster state. Additionally, Flux controllers deduplicate reconciliation requests, sending many requests in a short period results in only a single reconciliation being processed. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.8.3.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-40109?
Flux notification-controller is the event forwarder and notification dispatcher for the GitOps Toolkit controllers. Prior to 1.8.3, the gcr Receiver type in Flux notification-controller does not validate the email claim of Google OIDC tokens used for Pub/Sub push authentication. This allows any valid Google-issued token, to authenticate against the Receiver webhook endpoint, triggering unauthorized Flux reconciliations. Exploitation requires the attacker to know the Receiver's webhook URL. The webhook path is generated as /hook/sha256sum(token+name+namespace), where the token is a random string stored in a Kubernetes Secret. There is no API or endpoint that enumerates webhook URLs. An attacker cannot discover the path without either having access to the cluster and permissions to read the Receiver's .status.webhookPath in the target namespace, or obtaining the URL through other means (e.g. leaked secrets or access to Pub/Sub config). Upon successful authentication, the controller triggers a reconciliation for all resources listed in the Receiver's .spec.resources. However, the practical impact is limited: Flux reconciliation is idempotent, so if the desired state in the configured sources (Git, OCI, Helm) has not changed, the reconciliation results in a no-op with no effect on cluster state. Additionally, Flux controllers deduplicate reconciliation requests, sending many requests in a short period results in only a single reconciliation being processed. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.8.3.
How severe is CVE-2026-40109?
CVE-2026-40109 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 3.1, rated low severity. It is exploitable over network with high attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity low, and availability none.
Is CVE-2026-40109 being actively exploited?
It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (3rd percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-40109?
Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2026-40109 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?
Yes. CVE-2026-40109 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-21150.
When was CVE-2026-40109 published?
CVE-2026-40109 was published on 2026-04-09 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Other CWE-287 (Improper Authentication) vulnerabilities

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