Skip to main content
Meet us at Black Hat USA 2026— Las Vegas, August 1–6Book a Meeting
Mallory
CriticalPublic exploit

Argo CD privilege escalation via Redis cache manipulation

IdentifiersCVE-2024-31989CWE-284

CVE-2024-31989 affects Argo CD, a GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. The issue arises because an Argo CD Redis instance may be reachable by an unprivileged pod from another namespace on the same Kubernetes cluster, allowing unauthorized interaction with cached deployment data over port 6379. The provided content indicates that Redis cache data could be manipulated to poison deployment state and resource-tree data, enabling unauthorized deployments or information leakage. The vulnerability is associated with insufficient protection of Redis access and insecure handling of cached values. The issue was patched in Argo CD versions 2.8.19, 2.9.15, and 2.10.10.

Share:
For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

Mallory correlates every CVE against your assets, your vendors, and active adversary campaigns. Know which vulnerabilities matter for you, not just which ones are loud.

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 can allow privilege escalation up to the effective privileges of the Argo CD cluster controller, unauthorized deployment of attacker-controlled workloads, cache poisoning, and information disclosure through manipulated manifest or resource preview data. In practice, an attacker able to reach Redis can tamper with deployment cache entries so that Argo CD deploys attacker-controlled resources on a subsequent sync, creating a path to broader Kubernetes cluster compromise.

Mitigation

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

Restrict network access to the Argo CD Redis service so that only authorized Argo CD components can reach port 6379. Enforce Kubernetes NetworkPolicies and verify that the cluster CNI actually has network-policy enforcement enabled, since installation of a capable CNI alone may not activate policy enforcement. Apply strict Redis access controls and prevent untrusted pods or namespaces from connecting to the Redis instance.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade Argo CD to a fixed version: 2.8.19, 2.9.15, 2.10.10, or a later supported release in the relevant branch. In addition, ensure Redis access is properly restricted so only intended Argo CD components can connect. The advisory context indicates the fix should include stronger protection or validation of Redis cache contents rather than relying solely on network reachability assumptions.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

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

VALID 1 / 1 TOTALView more in app
CVE-2024-31989MaturityPoCVerified exploit

This repository provides an operational exploit for CVE-2024-31989, a vulnerability in Argo CD where the internal Redis instance is deployed without a password. The exploit is implemented in Go (main.go) and requires the attacker to supply a Redis cache key and a malicious pod manifest (such as the one in pod-example.txt). The exploit connects to the Redis instance (default localhost:6379), retrieves a cached manifest, replaces it with a malicious pod definition that grants host-level privileges and executes a reverse shell, and writes it back to Redis. The pod manifest mounts the host root filesystem and runs a privileged container, enabling full node compromise. The exploit is not part of a framework and is a standalone operational tool. The repository includes a README with usage instructions, a Go module definition, and an example malicious pod manifest. The main attack vector is network access to the Redis instance, and the main fingerprintable endpoints are the Redis TCP address and the host filesystem path used in the pod manifest.

vt0x78Disclosed Jul 17, 2024gonetwork
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
ArgoprojArgo-Cdapplication

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

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

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 activity

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.