Argo Workflows (controller, podSpecPatch in Strict/Secure template reference mode): A podSpecPatch on the submitted

Impact

A podSpecPatch on the submitted Workflow takes precedence over the referenced WorkflowTemplate and is written straight into the pod spec with no validation. Every hardening an admin encoded in the template - restricted service account, dropped capabilities, resource limits - is overridable by the tenant submitting the job. On a shared GPU cluster this is the difference between a tenant running in their own sandbox and running as the platform service account.

Who can reach it

Any principal allowed to create Workflows in a watched namespace. templateReferencing Strict, which the docs present as the mechanism that confines users to approved templates, does not stop it.

What to do

Upgrade the controller to 3.7.11 or 4.0.2 and restart. Note the fix was incomplete twice over (see CVE-2026-42296 and CVE-2026-54526), so land 3.7.15 / 4.0.6 rather than stopping at the first patched release, and add an admission policy that strips podSpecPatch from tenant Workflows.

References