A critical (CVSS 9.9) authentication bypass in the Red Hat OpenShift AI MaaS API lets any pod in the cluster impersonate arbitrary users and groups by forging HTTP headers, enabling cross-tenant privilege escalation.
What Is It
The MaaS API trusts the X-MaaS-Username and X-MaaS-Group HTTP headers verbatim, with no first-party authentication of its own. Because the API accepts whatever identity those headers assert, any pod inside the cluster can forge them and bypass the Kuadrant AuthPolicy gateway entirely; the gateway is simply routed around rather than defeated.
The flaw is classified as CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing). Red Hat assigns it a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.9 (CRITICAL), vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H, network-reachable, low complexity, no user interaction, and a changed scope with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.
Why It Matters
The consequences named in the advisory are concrete and severe. An attacker who can run a single pod in the cluster can:
- Mint Kubernetes ServiceAccount tokens in other tenants' namespaces
- Revoke API keys
- Exfiltrate sensitive model access configuration
The scope-changed CVSS rating reflects exactly this: compromise does not stay inside the vulnerable component. Minting ServiceAccount tokens in foreign namespaces converts a low-privilege foothold into cross-tenant control, which breaks the isolation model that multi-tenant AI-serving platforms depend on. Key revocation adds a denial-of-service dimension against other tenants' workloads.
What's Vulnerable
Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI), specifically the package:
rhoai/odh-maas-api-rhel9, affected
Red Hat lists two related packages as unaffected:
rhoai/odh-maas-controller-rhel9rhoai/odh-mod-arch-maas-rhel9
Affected CPE: cpe:/a:redhat:openshift_ai.
Patch Status
The CVE was published 2026-08-10 with NVD status Received; no fixed version or remediation guidance is present in the supplied data. Red Hat's security page and the linked Bugzilla entry (2496373) are the authoritative places to check for errata as they ship.
CVE-2026-14450 does not appear in the CISA KEV catalog in the supplied data; there is no confirmation of active exploitation, and no KEV-mandated remediation deadline applies.
Sources
- Red Hat Security Advisory; https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-14450
- Red Hat Bugzilla #2496373; https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2496373
- NVD, CVE-2026-14450 (CVSS 9.9 CRITICAL, CWE-290)
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog; https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog