Unauthenticated control plane denial of service attack in Istio

Description

Impact

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. This endpoint is served over TLS port 15012, 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 multicluster topologies, this port is exposed over the public internet.

Patches

  • Istio 1.13.1 and above
  • Istio 1.12.4 and above
  • Istio 1.11.7 and above

Workarounds

There are no effective workarounds, beyond upgrading. Limiting network access to Istiod to the minimal set of clients can help lessen the scope of the vulnerability to some extent.

References

More details can be found in the Istio Security Bulletin

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email us at [email protected]

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2022-02-23 14:59:08 UTC
Updated
2023-07-13 19:01:56 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2022-02-23 14:59:08 UTC
NVD published
2022-02-22

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.68% 71.51%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
7.5 3.1
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.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-287 Improper Authentication
CWE-1284 Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input

Credits

  • AdamKorcz (analyst)
  • howardjohn (analyst)

Affected packages (3)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
go istio.io/istio = 1.13.0 1.13.1
go istio.io/istio >= 1.12.0, < 1.12.4 1.12.4
go istio.io/istio < 1.11.7 1.11.7

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence