CVE-2024-52284: Rancher Fleet Helm Values are stored inside BundleDeployment in plain text

A vulnerability has been identified when using Fleet to manage Helm charts where sensitive information is passed through BundleDeployment.Spec.Options.Helm.Values may be stored in plain text. This can result in:

1. Unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data: Any user with GET or LIST permissions on BundleDeployment resources could retrieve Helm values containing credentials or other secrets.
2. Lack of encryption at rest: BundleDeployment is not configured for Kubernetes encryption at rest by default, causing sensitive values to remain unencrypted within the cluster datastore.

This behavior differs from Helm v3’s default approach, where chart state — including values — is stored in Kubernetes secrets, benefiting from built-in protection mechanisms. In affected scenarios, credentials and other sensitive information are exposed both at rest and in responses to API calls.

Please consult the associated MITRE ATT&CK - Technique - Credentials from Password Stores for further information about this category of attack.

For the exposure of credentials not related to Rancher, the final impact severity for confidentiality, integrity, and availability is dependent on the permissions that the leaked credentials have on their own services. It is recommended to review the potentially exposed sensitive data in this scenario and change secrets, tokens, and passwords as necessary.