Improper input validation in the Kubernetes API server in versions v1.0-1.12 and versions prior to v1.13.12, v1.14.8, v1.15.5, and v1.16.2 allows authorized users to send malicious YAML or JSON payloads, causing the API server to consume excessive CPU or memory, potentially crashing and becoming unavailable. Prior to v1.14.0, default RBAC policy authorized anonymous users to submit requests that could trigger this vulnerability. Clusters upgraded from a version prior to v1.14.0 keep the more permissive policy by default for backwards compatibility.
CVE-2019-11253
This high-severity CVE scores 7.5 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 25.9%, top 2% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.5
- EG Score
- 7.5(medium)
- EG Risk
- 54(Track)EG Risk 54/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity75% × 45%Exploitation40% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS PROB
- 26%
- EPSS %ILE
- 98%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
October 17, 2019
Last Modified
February 24, 2026
References (12)
- jordan@liggitthttps://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3239
- jordan@liggitthttps://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3811
- jordan@liggitthttps://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3905
- jordan@liggitthttps://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/83253
- jordan@liggitthttps://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/kubernetes-security-announce/jk8polzSUxs
- jordan@liggitthttps://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20191031-0006/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3239
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3811
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3905
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/83253
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/kubernetes-security-announce/jk8polzSUxs
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20191031-0006/
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2019-11253(3)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2022:2183Red Hat Product SecurityMedium
Red Hat Security Advisory: Release of containers for OSP 16.2.z director operator tech preview
- RHSA-2020:2861Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 1.0 servicemesh-grafana security update
- RHSA-2020:2796Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh servicemesh-grafana security update
Patch Availability(12)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | rhosp-rhel8-tech-preview/osp-director-operator:1.2.3-2 | 2022-05-11 | redhat |
| redhat | servicemesh-grafana-0:6.2.2-38.el8 | 2020-07-07 | redhat |
| redhat | servicemesh-cni-0:1.0.11-1.el8 | 2020-07-07 | redhat |
| redhat | servicemesh-prometheus-0:2.7.2-36.el8 | 2020-07-07 | redhat |
| redhat | servicemesh-cni-0:1.1.4-2.el8 | 2020-07-01 | redhat |
| redhat | servicemesh-grafana-0:6.4.3-11.el8 | 2020-07-01 | redhat |
| redhat | servicemesh-operator-0:1.1.4-3.el8 | 2020-07-01 | redhat |
| redhat | atomic-openshift-0:3.11.154-1.git.0.7a097ad.el7 | 2019-11-18 | redhat |
| redhat | atomic-openshift-0:3.9.102-1.git.0.6411f52.el7 | 2019-11-07 | redhat |
| redhat | servicemesh-proxy-0:1.0.2-3.el8 | 2019-11-07 | redhat |
| redhat | atomic-openshift-0:3.10.181-1.git.0.3ab4b3d.el7 | 2019-10-29 | redhat |
| redhat | openshift-0:4.1.20-201910101746.git.0.a80aad5.el7 | 2019-10-16 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Go(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| k8s.io/kubernetes | — | 1.16.2 | — |
Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(9)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Red HatRHEA-2019:3809IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHEA-2019:3809 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2019:3132IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2019:3132 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2019:3239IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2019:3239 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2019:3811IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2019:3811 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2019:3905IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2019:3905 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2795IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2020:2795 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2799IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2020:2799 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2863IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2020:2863 — Important
- Red HatRHSA-2020:2870IMPORTANT2019-09-28
RHSA-2020:2870 — Important
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 11× in last 7d / 37× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-25 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 01:38 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:19 UTCEG score recompute▼ 1.50
- 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 03:16 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:01 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-06 02:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 18:05 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-02 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-14 16:13 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 13:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-08 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 12:48 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-27 12:48 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
Publicly available exploits
(1 reference)Working exploit code is in the public domain. Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- Nucleihttp/cves/2019/CVE-2019-11253.yamlFirst seen Jan 1, 2019
Kubernetes API Server - YAML Parsing DoS (Billion Laughs)
Open source ↗
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownredhat
- CVE-2001-0825EG 10.0HIGH
- CVE-2001-1009EG 10.0EPSS p93HIGH
- CVE-2001-0554EG 10.0EPSS p98HIGH
- CVE-2001-1162EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2001-0414EG 10.0EPSS p100HIGH
- CVE-2001-0191EG 10.0EPSS p92HIGH
- CVE-2001-0301EG 10.0EPSS p90HIGH
- CVE-2001-0197EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2001-0233EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2001-0010EG 10.0EPSS p98HIGH
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-20
- CVE-2005-0050EG 10.0EPSS p99HIGH
- CVE-2004-1019EG 10.0EPSS p94HIGH
- CVE-2004-0840EG 10.0EPSS p98HIGH
- CVE-2003-1425EG 10.0EPSS p96HIGH
- CVE-2003-1487EG 10.0EPSS p94HIGH
- CVE-2002-1874EG 10.0HIGH
- CVE-2002-2236EG 10.0EPSS p91HIGH
- CVE-2002-2365EG 10.0HIGH
- CVE-2002-1358EG 10.0EPSS p92HIGH
- CVE-2002-1359EG 10.0EPSS p100HIGH
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2019-11253?
When was CVE-2019-11253 disclosed?
Is CVE-2019-11253 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-11253?
How do I remediate CVE-2019-11253?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2019-11253
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2019-11253?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.