# CVE-2022-31045: Ill-formed headers may lead to unexpected behavior in Istio

> Ill-formed headers can cause unexpected memory access and crashes in Istio Envoy proxies, primarily affecting exposed ingress gateways.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Jun 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xwx5-5c9g-x68x, MINI-26xr-p39q-gp2f, MINI-2rfh-4hmw-pv37, MINI-42g9-8vc8-888j, MINI-4wh7-32qv-pjwv, MINI-883c-9xw3-gqhw, MINI-97hj-p395-r7c2, MINI-hrr9-4f73-96mp, MINI-r8jr-8qp2-hgw4

## What is CVE-2022-31045?

CVE-2022-31045 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in istio, published on 9 Jun 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In affected versions ill-formed headers sent to Envoy in certain configurations can lead to unexpected memory access resulting in undefined behavior or crashing. Users are most likely at risk if they have an Istio ingress Gateway exposed to external traffic. This vulnerability has been resolved in versions 1.12.8, 1.13.5, and 1.14.1. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-31045?

6 open source packages ship an affected version, including istio.io/istio. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `istio.io/istio` | Go | All versions | 1.12.18 |
| `istio.io/istio` | Go | All versions | 1.12.18 |
| `istio.io/istio` | Go | From 1.13.0 | 1.13.5 |
| `istio.io/istio` | Go | From 1.13.0 | 1.13.5 |
| `istio.io/istio` | Go | From 1.14.0 | 1.14.1 |
| `istio.io/istio` | Go | From 1.14.0 | 1.14.1 |

Products: Istio Istio.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-31045?

Upgrade istio.io/istio to a fixed version for your release line: 1.12.18, 1.13.5 or 1.14.1.

## Is CVE-2022-31045 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-31045 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in istio

- [CVE-2021-31921](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31921/): Missing authorization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-34824](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-34824/): Information disclosure in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-31837](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-31837/): Istio JWKS resolver to prevent private key material from being exposed when JWKS fetch fails. (high 8.7)
- [CVE-2021-39155](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39155/): Authorization Policy Bypass Due to Case Insensitive Host Comparison (high 8.3)
- [CVE-2021-39156](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39156/): Fragments in Path May Lead to Authorization Policy Bypass (high 8.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-31045 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-31045 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in istio, published on 9 Jun 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-31045 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- istio.io/istio (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 1.12.18
- istio.io/istio (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 1.12.18
- istio.io/istio (Go): affected from 1.13.0; fixed in 1.13.5
- istio.io/istio (Go): affected from 1.13.0; fixed in 1.13.5
- istio.io/istio (Go): affected from 1.14.0; fixed in 1.14.1
- istio.io/istio (Go): affected from 1.14.0; fixed in 1.14.1

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-31045/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-31045/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-31045
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-31045
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-31045

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-31045/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.