High [CVE-2026-66798] Restore.spec.hooks passed verbatim to Velero Restore — arbitrary command execution in restored pods

Use after free in Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code over a network. A flaw was found in cluster-backup-operator.

A namespace administrator in open-cluster-management-backup can create a Restore Custom Resource (CR) with malicious hooks. These hooks allow the execution of arbitrary commands within any matching restored pod, leading to the exfiltration of ServiceAccount tokens.

This bypasses normal access controls, granting the attacker unauthorized execution access to pods and their associated Service Accounts. This vulnerability is rated as Important because an authenticated user with administrative access to the backup namespace can achieve cluster-wide privilege escalation.

By defining custom restore operations containing uninspected execution hooks, an attacker circumvents standard pod execution controls across target restored workloads. This bypass enables unauthorized command execution and credential exfiltration across different namespaces, exceeding the boundary of the backup operator namespace.

Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 8.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). Weakness: CWE-77.