Description

AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open-source software development framework to define cloud infrastructure in code and provision it through AWS CloudFormation. In the packages `aws-cdk-lib` 2.0.0 until 2.80.0 and `@aws-cdk/aws-eks` 1.57.0 until 1.202.0, `eks.Cluster` and `eks.FargateCluster` constructs create two roles, `CreationRole` and `default MastersRole`, that have an overly permissive trust policy.

The first, referred to as the `CreationRole`, is used by lambda handlers to create the cluster and deploy Kubernetes resources (e.g `KubernetesManifest`, `HelmChart`, ...) onto it. Users with CDK version higher or equal to 1.62.0 (including v2 users) may be affected.

The second, referred to as the `default MastersRole`, is provisioned only if the `mastersRole` property isn't provided and has permissions to execute `kubectl` commands on the cluster. Users with CDK version higher or equal to 1.57.0 (including v2 users) may be affected.

The issue has been fixed in `@aws-cdk/aws-eks` v1.202.0 and `aws-cdk-lib` v2.80.0. These versions no longer use the account root principal. Instead, they restrict the trust policy to the specific roles of lambda handlers that need it. There is no workaround available for CreationRole. To avoid creating the `default MastersRole`, use the `mastersRole` property to explicitly provide a role.

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2023-35165

CVSS Base Severity: MEDIUM

CVSS Base Score: 6.6

Affected Products

Vendor: aws

Product: aws-cdk

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.12% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 46.59% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-02-03 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/security/advisories/GHSA-rx28-r23p-2qc3
https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/25674

Timeline