CVE-2026-89139 — temporal / temporal
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')Temporal Server compiles a Worker Controller Instance module into its Worker Service, and that module registers a compute provider named subprocess whose function is to launch a worker by running a command on the machine hosting the Worker Service. The program name and the argument vector that provider executes are taken from the compute provider configuration supplied in the caller's request rather than from operator configuration. An authenticated caller holding only a write role in a single namespace can therefore configure a worker deployment version so that the Worker Service executes a command of the caller's choosing on its own host, under the account the server process runs as. Execution is immediate rather than deferred: the configuration handler invokes every provider using the invoke strategy directly after validating the submitted specification, so no scaling decision, task arrival, or unusual request sequence is required. Because the Worker Service process holds the persistence credentials for every namespace in the cluster and the cluster's TLS material, the consequence reaches beyond the caller's namespace to the cluster as a whole. The provider is present in the official temporal-server binaries and container images for the affected releases. The only control that can keep it unreachable is the compute provider allowlist, the per-namespace dynamic configuration setting workercontroller.compute_providers.enabled, and that control does not deny by default: its default value is an unset list, and the allowlist check is skipped entirely when the value is unset, so every registered compute provider is permitted, this one included. To determine whether a deployment is affected, check the following together. The deployed Temporal Server version is 1.31.0 or later and earlier than 1.31.3. The Worker Service is running, which it is in the default service set and therefore in a stock deployment. The effective per-namespace value of workercontroller.compute_providers.enabled is either unset or contains subprocess. And authorization is configured, meaning a real authorizer and claim mapper are in place; a deployment running with no authorizer already grants every caller unrestricted access to every namespace, so it has no namespace boundary for this to cross. Note that the separate per-namespace dynamic configuration setting workercontroller.enabled does not gate the affected path. It defaults to false, and a deployment that has never set it in any namespace is still affected, which was confirmed by running an affected release with no value for that setting present anywhere in dynamic configuration. To look for a compute configuration that is already attached, call DescribeWorkerDeploymentVersion for each worker deployment version in each namespace and check whether any scaling group's compute provider type is subprocess.
| Software | Affected versions |
|---|---|
| temporal / temporal | >= 1.31.0, < 1.31.3 |
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A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.
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Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.
Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.
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