CVE-2026-110697 is a critical flaw (CVSS 9.9) in Red Hat Quay: a low-privileged user can create a namespace with an underscore in its name and retrieve robot account tokens that belong to other tenants.
What Is It
The function that lists robot accounts in Quay builds a SQL LIKE pattern from namespace names that users control. It does not escape wildcard metacharacters in those names. In a LIKE pattern, an underscore matches any single character. A namespace name containing one can therefore match robot accounts in other tenants' namespaces. The listing then returns those accounts along with their decrypted authentication tokens.
The weakness is classified as CWE-89 (SQL Injection). Red Hat Product Security ([email protected]) reported the CVE, and NVD published it on 2026-11-11. Its NVD status is "Awaiting Analysis."
Why It Matters
Robot accounts are machine credentials for automated registry access. If an attacker steals them across tenants, they can perform image operations they are not authorized for in namespaces they do not own. Based on the published description, a user on a shared Quay deployment who is allowed to create a namespace may be able to carry out this attack. Actual exposure likely depends on how the deployment is configured, such as whether namespace creation is limited to administrators. It also depends on whether an attacker-chosen name can be made to match existing namespaces that hold robot accounts. The supplied data does not detail these preconditions.
The Red Hat CVSS v3.1 vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H:
- It is exploitable over the network with low attack complexity.
- It needs only low privileges and no user interaction.
- Scope is changed, because the impact crosses tenant boundaries.
- Confidentiality, integrity and availability impact are all high.
CVE-2026-110697 is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog, and the supplied data does not confirm active exploitation.
What's Vulnerable
Red Hat lists these products as affected:
- Red Hat Quay 3: packages
quay/quay-rhel8andquay/quay-rhel9(cpe:/a:redhat:quay:3) - Red Hat Quay 5: package
quay/quay-rhel9(cpe:/a:redhat:quay:5)
Red Hat lists Red Hat OpenShift Update Service (openshift-update-service/openshift-update-service-rhel8) as unaffected.
Patch Status
The supplied NVD record does not name fixed versions or a released update. There is no KEV entry, so there is no CISA-mandated required action or due date. Quay operators should watch the Red Hat CVE page and Bugzilla entry for fixed builds and guidance, and apply updates once they are available. Multi-tenant registries are the most exposed and should be updated first. Robot account tokens in shared deployments may already have been exposed, so consider rotating them as a precaution.