Windows kubelet NTLM coercion via subPath UNC symlinks
CVE-2026-76654 lets a privileged attacker steal or relay the kubelet account hash on Windows nodes.
Kubernetes has disclosed CVE-2026-76654, a medium-severity flaw in the Windows kubelet that can coerce NTLM authentication when a pod volume subPath is a symlink to an attacker-controlled network share.
On affected nodes, symlink resolution does not reject UNC targets. The kubelet then authenticates to the remote share with NTLM, exposing the NetNTLMv2 hash of the account under which it runs. An attacker who can set that subPath may crack the hash or, on a domain-joined node, relay it to impersonate the node.
The issue is rated 5.8 (CVSS 3.1) and requires high privileges plus non-trivial conditions. It affects kubelet through v1.34.11, v1.35.8, v1.36.4, and v1.37.0. Fixed builds (v1.34.12, v1.35.9, v1.36.5, and v1.37.1 and later) refuse UNC symlink targets on Windows.
The vulnerability was reported by the Kubernetes Third-Party Security Audit subproject, OSTIF, and Shielder. Nathan Herz announced the advisory for the project's security response committee.