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Repository credentials passed to alternate domain — helm.sh/helm/v3

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

While working on the Helm source, a Helm core maintainer discovered a situation where the username and password credentials associated with a Helm repository could be passed on to another domain referenced by that Helm repository.

Impact

The index.yaml within a Helm chart repository contains a reference where to get the chart archive for each version of a chart. The reference can be relative to the index.yaml file or a URL to location. The URL can point to any domain and this is a feature leveraged by Helm users. For example, an index.yaml file can be hosted on GitHub pages while the chart archives are hosted as GitHub releases. These are on different domain names and the index.yaml file points to the other domain.

When a username and password were associated with a Helm repository the username and password were also passed on to other domains referenced in the index.yaml file. This occurred when Helm went to retrieve a specific chart archive on the other domain.

Patches

This issue has been resolved in 3.6.1.

There is a slight behavior change to credential handling with regard to repositories. Usernames and passwords are only passed to the URL location of the Helm repository by default. The username and password are scoped to the scheme, host, and port of the Helm repository. To pass the username and password to other domains Helm may encounter when it goes to retrieve a chart, the new --pass-credentials flag can be used. This flag restores the old behavior for a single repository as an opt-in behavior.

Workarounds

If you use a username and password for a Helm repository you can audit the Helm repository in order to check for another domain being used that could have received the credentials. In the index.yaml file for that repository, look for another domain in the urls list for the chart versions. If there is another domain found and that chart version was pulled or installed the credentials would have been passed on.

For more information

Helm's security policy is spelled out in detail in our SECURITY document.

  • Published: Jun 23, 2021
  • Updated: Apr 14, 2023
  • GHSA: GHSA-56hp-xqp3-w2jf
  • Severity: Medium
  • Exploit:
  • CISA KEV:

No technical information available.

CWEs:

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

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.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.