CRE-2025-0062

Karpenter Version Incompatible with Kubernetes VersionMedium

Impact: 6/10

Mitigation: 2/10

CRE-2025-0062View on GitHub

Version IncompatibilityKarpenter

Description

• Karpenter logs an error when its current version is not compatible with the running Kubernetes control plane version.
• This results in provisioning failures and indicates a required upgrade to align compatibility.
• The issue is surfaced via structured logs from the controller.

Cause

• Karpenter performs a runtime check against the Kubernetes API server version.
• If the cluster is running a newer version than Karpenter supports, the controller will reject provisioning requests.

Mitigation

• Upgrade Karpenter to a version that supports the running Kubernetes version.
• Review the Karpenter release notes and compatibility matrix prior to cluster upgrades.
• Consider pinning cluster upgrades behind workload compatibility checks.

References

• https://github.com/aws/karpenter-provider-aws/issues/5528
• https://github.com/aws/karpenter/releases