CVE-2026-22822: External-Secrets External Secrets Operator

High severity, CVSS 8.8. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Starting in version 0.20.2 and prior to version 1.2.0, the `getSecretKey` template function, while introduced for senhasegura Devops Secrets Management (DSM) provider, has the ability to fetch secrets cross-namespaces with the roleBinding of the external-secrets controller, bypassing our security mechanisms. This function was completely removed in version 1.2.0, as everything done with that templating function can be done in a different way while respecting External Secrets Operator's safeguards As a workaround, use a policy engine such as Kubernetes, Kyverno, Kubewarden, or OPA to prevent the usage of `getSecretKey` in any ExternalSecret resource.

Affected products

• External-Secrets External Secrets Operator: from 0.20.2, before 1.2.0 (fixed in 1.2.0)

Published 2026-01-21. Last modified 2026-07-15.