Medium · CVSS 5.5CVE-2026-81320

Hawtio-operator: hawtio-operator: tls private key written to operator log at debug levelCVE-2026-81320

Answer in brief

CVE-2026-81320 records a Medium severity (CVSS 5.5) vulnerability in Hawtio-operator: hawtio-operator: tls private key written to operator log at debug level. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Red Hat/rhbac-4/hawtio-rhel9 (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Analysis pending evidence review

HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.

Published Sep 15, 2026Updated Sep 17, 2026Source checked Oct 30, 2026First seen by HOL Sep 15, 2026Material review Sep 17, 2026

Upstream Advisory

Key facts

Risk: Medium · CVSS 5.5
Exploitation: Not marked as known exploited
Affected software: 1 mapped package or product
Fix availability: Not reported

Why this deserves its current priority

CVSS is 5.5. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.

Analysis status

Analysis pending evidence review

Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps Red Hat/rhbac-4/hawtio-rhel9 (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
Red Hat/rhbac-4/hawtio-rhel9generic	*	Not reported

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for Red Hat/rhbac-4/hawtio-rhel9.
Review the reported fix. Source-reported workaround: Exclude logging sensitive info or apply masking. Set the operator log verbosity to 0 (the default) to prevent TLS key material from being written to logs. If debug logging has been enabled previously, rotate any TLS secrets that may have been exposed in the logs and purge the affected log entries from centralized logging systems.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Sep 15, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Sep 17, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Sep 15, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

A flaw was found in hawtio-operator. When a custom Route TLS secret is configured and the operator runs at debug log level 1 or higher, the entire Route object — including the TLS private key in PEM format — is serialized to JSON and written to the operator's standard output. Operator logs are typically forwarded to centralized logging systems and readable by anyone with pods/log access in the openshift-operators namespace. Debug level 1 is a low threshold commonly enabled during troubleshooting.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.

Package

Affected range

Fixed version

Red Hat/rhbac-4/hawtio-rhel9generic

Not reported

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for Red Hat/rhbac-4/hawtio-rhel9.

Review the reported fix. Source-reported workaround: Exclude logging sensitive info or apply masking. Set the operator log verbosity to 0 (the default) to prevent TLS key material from being written to logs. If debug logging has been enabled previously, rotate any TLS secrets that may have been exposed in the logs and purge the affected log entries from centralized logging systems.

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.