CVE-2022-21701 Privileged Escalation in Istio
Users with CREATE permissions on Gateway API objects can escalate privileges to create unauthorized resources like Pods in Istio.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2022-21701?
CVE-2022-21701 is a medium-severity vulnerability in istio, published on 19 Jan 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
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.
Weakness: CWE-863
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-21701?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Istio Istio.
How do I fix CVE-2022-21701?
No fix has been published for CVE-2022-21701 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2022-21701 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-21701 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in istio
- CVE-2021-31921 Missing authorization in n/a
- CVE-2021-34824 Information disclosure in n/a
- CVE-2026-31837 Istio JWKS resolver to prevent private key material from being exposed when JWKS fetch fails.
- CVE-2021-39155 Authorization Policy Bypass Due to Case Insensitive Host Comparison
- CVE-2021-39156 Fragments in Path May Lead to Authorization Policy Bypass
Sources
Also known as GHSA-mq8f-9446-c28r.