The vulnerability affects all versions of Kubernetes greater than 1.0.0 and RedHat OpenShift platform versions greater than 3.0.0, allowing users to escalate their privileges to that of a Kubernetes cluster administrator by exploiting an error in the reverse-proxy when an error occurs with the remote exec command. This can lead to access to secrets and data volumes mounted in containers, even if the container is running with elevated (root) privileges. The best method to prevent all vulnerabilities is to upgrade the Kubernetes cluster to a version that has the vulnerability patched, starting from Kubernetes 1.10.11, 1.11.5, and 1.12.3. The Couchbase Autonomous Operator can be affected by this vulnerability, but not the operator itself, and upgrading to a patched version of Kubernetes is recommended. Upgrading the Kubernetes cluster requires careful consideration to maintain data integrity of the Couchbase data platform, particularly for stateful services like Couchbase server, where evicting a pod can lead to data loss if not done correctly. The Autonomous Operator can mitigate this risk by using pod anti-affinity and persistent volumes, and future versions will feature enhancements to reduce disruption during failover.