CVE-2026-55997 HIGH

CVE-2026-55997: Long-lived Rancher registration token exposed in plaintext

Vendor Rancher
Product rancher
Weakness CWE-312 · Cleartext storage
Published August 5, 2026
Last update August 5, 2026

CVSS base score

8.8/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Confidentiality High
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Rancher issues long-lived registration tokens to authenticate nodes and agents joining a downstream cluster. These tokens were stored and exposed in plaintext with no expiration, so a malicious user could obtain one either through the Rancher API, etcd, stored automation, or direct file access on a node, and could use it at any time to register a rogue node into the cluster.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

August 5, 2026 CVE published
August 5, 2026 Record updated