CVE-2022-24726 | Unauthenticated control plane denial of service attack in Istio

Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In affected versions the Istio control plane, istiod, is vulnerable to a request processing error, allowing a malicious attacker that sends a specially crafted message which results in the control plane crashing when the validating webhook for a cluster is exposed publicly. This endpoint is served over TLS port 15017, but does not require any authentication from the attacker. For simple installations, Istiod is typically only reachable from within the cluster, limiting the blast radius. However, for some deployments, especially [external istiod](https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/install/external-controlplane/) topologies, this port is exposed over the public internet. This issue has been patched in versions 1.13.2, 1.12.5 and 1.11.8. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable access to a validating webhook that is exposed to the public internet or restrict the set of IP addresses that can query it to a set of known, trusted entities.

Published: 2022-03-10 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-24726 is rated Moderate Risk (56.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.53%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.14% 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-24726

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 0.39% 1.53% +1.14%
2 2025-05-11 0.56% 0.39% -0.17%
3 2025-04-13 0.56%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-24726

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-24726

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-24726

vendor priority summary link
redhat high https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-24726

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-24726

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
istio istio < 1.11.8 cpe:2.3:a:istio:istio:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
istio istio >= 1.12.0, < 1.12.5 cpe:2.3:a:istio:istio:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
istio istio >= 1.13.0, < 1.13.2 cpe:2.3:a:istio:istio:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-24726

cvelogic Threat Intelligence