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CVE-2022-21701

MEDIUM severity · CVSS 5 · Incorrect authorization
5CVSS MEDIUM

Summary

Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In versions 1.12.0 and 1.12.1 Istio is vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack. Users who have `CREATE` permission for `gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io` objects can escalate this privilege to create other resources that they may not have access to, such as `Pod`. This vulnerability impacts only an Alpha level feature, the Kubernetes Gateway API. This is not the same as the Istio Gateway type (gateways.networking.istio.io), which is not vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to resolve this issue. Users unable to upgrade should implement any of the following which will prevent this vulnerability: Remove the gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io CustomResourceDefinition, set PILOT_ENABLE_GATEWAY_API_DEPLOYMENT_CONTROLLER=true environment variable in Istiod, or remove CREATE permissions for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects from untrusted users.

Impact & exploitability

Attack vectorNetwork
Attack complexityHigh
Privileges requiredLow
User interactionNone
Confidentiality impactLow
Integrity impactLow
Availability impactLow
Exploit probability (EPSS)1%

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Affected products we track (1)

Recommendation

Apply the vendor fix in your normal patch cycle. Open any affected product above for its exact safe version.