HighPublic exploit

Sensitive Information Exposure in Rancher Audit Logs

IdentifiersCVE-2023-22649CWE-532· Insertion of Sensitive Information…

CVE-2023-22649 is an information exposure vulnerability in Rancher that can cause sensitive data to be written to audit logs when Rancher Audit Logging is enabled. Affected deployments are those with the opt-in audit logging feature enabled and AUDIT_LEVEL set to 1 or higher. Under these conditions, audit records may capture and persist sensitive material associated with API activity, including authentication data, Kubernetes Secret objects, agent command-line data, and kubeconfig contents. The issue is a logging-related confidentiality flaw in which sensitive information is recorded in audit output that should not contain such data.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation results in confidentiality loss through disclosure of sensitive information in Rancher audit logs. Exposed data may include credentials, tokens, HTTP header contents, Kubernetes Secret data, agent registration material, and kubeconfig contents. The practical impact depends on who can access the logs and whether the logs are retained locally or exported to centralized logging platforms. If leaked credentials or tokens are valid and sufficiently privileged, the exposure can enable unauthorized access to Rancher-managed resources and downstream Kubernetes environments.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate patching is not possible, disable Rancher Audit Logging or reduce AUDIT_LEVEL to 0 to prevent sensitive data from being logged. Where audit logging at level 1 or higher must remain enabled, strictly limit access to audit logs, apply strong RBAC and administrative controls to any local or centralized log storage, and avoid forwarding audit logs to external log collection systems unless access controls are appropriately enforced.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade Rancher to a fixed release in the relevant supported branch: 2.6.14, 2.7.10, or 2.8.2. Because sensitive material may already have been recorded prior to remediation, review audit log retention and distribution paths, identify potentially exposed secrets, and rotate any static credentials, tokens, kubeconfigs, or other authentication material that may have been captured in logs.

PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos.

VALID 1 / 1 TOTALView more in app

rancher_audit_log_leak.rbMaturityWeaponizedFrameworkmetasploitVerified exploit

This repository contains a single Metasploit post-exploitation module: 'Rancher Audit Log Sensitive Information Leak'. The module targets Rancher versions 2.6.0-2.6.13, 2.7.0-2.7.9, and 2.8.0-2.8.1 on Linux/Unix systems, specifically when audit logging is enabled and set to a sufficient level. The exploit requires an active session (shell or meterpreter) on the target system. It reads the Rancher API audit log file (default: /var/log/auditlog/rancher-api-audit.log), parses each JSON log entry, and extracts sensitive fields such as authentication headers, tokens, credentials, secrets, certificates, private keys, and usernames. The results are presented in a table and saved as loot for further analysis. The module is operational and provides a practical method for post-exploitation data harvesting in environments affected by CVE-2023-22649. No network endpoints are targeted; the attack vector is local file access.

Disclosed Feb 8, 2024rubylocal

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType

Rancher LabsRancherapplication

SuseRancherapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

1 sources tracked across advisories and community write-ups. News coverage will land here when it surfaces.

1 SOURCESView more in app

No news coverage yet. Advisories and community discussion only.

What this page doesn’t show

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Exposure mapping

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Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity1