Envoy is a cloud-native high-performance edge/middle/service proxy. In Envoy version 1.17.0 an attacker can bypass authentication by presenting a JWT token with an issuer that is not in the provider list when Envoy's JWT Authentication filter is configured with the `allow_missing` requirement under `requires_any` due to a mistake in implementation. Envoy's JWT Authentication filter can be configured with the `allow_missing` requirement that will be satisfied if JWT is missing (JwtMissed error) and fail if JWT is presented or invalid. Due to a mistake in implementation, a JwtUnknownIssuer error was mistakenly converted to JwtMissed when `requires_any` was configured. So if `allow_missing` was configured under `requires_any`, an attacker can bypass authentication by presenting a JWT token with an issuer that is not in the provider list. Integrity may be impacted depending on configuration if the JWT token is used to protect against writes or modifications. This regression was introduced on 2020/11/12 in PR 13839 which fixed handling `allow_missing` under RequiresAny in a JwtRequirement (see issue 13458). The AnyVerifier aggregates the children verifiers' results into a final status where JwtMissing is the default error. However, a JwtUnknownIssuer was mistakenly treated the same as a JwtMissing error and the resulting final aggregation was the default JwtMissing. As a result, `allow_missing` would allow a JWT token with an unknown issuer status. This is fixed in version 1.17.1 by PR 15194. The fix works by preferring JwtUnknownIssuer over a JwtMissing error, fixing the accidental conversion and bypass with `allow_missing`. A user could detect whether a bypass occurred if they have Envoy logs enabled with debug verbosity. Users can enable component level debug logs for JWT. The JWT filter logs will indicate that there is a request with a JWT token and a failure that the JWT token is missing.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-21378 is rated Moderate Risk (60.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.71%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.29% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-06-15 | 0.42% | 1.71% | +1.29% |
| 2 | 2025-11-21 | 0.47% | 0.42% | -0.05% |
| 3 | 2025-11-18 | — | 0.47% | — |
Full EPSS history (12 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.2 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
3.9 | 4.2 | [email protected] |
| 8.2 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
3.9 | 4.2 | [email protected] |
| 6.4 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
10.0 | 4.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
redhat
|
high | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-21378 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| envoyproxy | envoy | 1.17.0 | cpe:2.3:a:envoyproxy:envoy:1.17.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/commit/ea39e3cba652bcc4b11bb0d5c62b017e584d2e5a | Patch Third Party Advisory |
| https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/pull/15194 | Patch |
| https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/security/advisories/GHSA-4996-m8hf-hj27 | Mitigation Third Party Advisory |