CVE-2025-2241: 
vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A critical security vulnerability (CVE-2025-2241) was discovered in Hive, a component of Multicluster Engine (MCE) and Advanced Cluster Management (ACM). The vulnerability, disclosed on March 17, 2025, exposes VCenter credentials within the ClusterProvision object after provisioning a VSphere cluster. This flaw allows users with read access to ClusterProvision objects to extract sensitive credentials, even without direct access to Kubernetes Secrets (NVD, Red Hat CVE).

The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (High) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N. It is classified under CWE-922 (Insecure Storage of Sensitive Information). The flaw specifically manifests when VCenter credentials, originally supplied via a Secret in the same namespace as the ClusterDeployment, are exposed in the ClusterProvision object after cluster provisioning (NVD, SecMaster).

The vulnerability's impact is severe, potentially leading to unauthorized VCenter access, cluster management manipulation, and privilege escalation. Successful exploitation enables attackers with low-privilege read access to extract sensitive credentials, potentially compromising the entire cluster infrastructure. This access could result in unauthorized management of virtual machines, modification of network configurations, and access to sensitive data within the vSphere environment (SecMaster).

Immediate mitigation steps include restricting access to ClusterProvision objects through RBAC policies, implementing the principle of least privilege, and rotating potentially exposed vCenter credentials. Organizations should review and limit read permissions for all cluster-related resources and implement additional access controls around credential management. The primary remediation strategy involves updating MCE and ACM deployments to the patched version released by Red Hat (SecMaster).