# CVE-2024-42488: Cilium agent's race condition may lead to policy bypass for Host Firewall policy

> A race condition in Cilium agent allows attackers to bypass Host Firewall policies by causing the agent to ignore node labels.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Aug 2024
- **Updated:** 19 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** BIT-cilium-2024-42488, BIT-cilium-operator-2024-42488, BIT-hubble-relay-2024-42488, GHSA-q7w8-72mr-vpgw, GO-2024-3072

## What is CVE-2024-42488?

CVE-2024-42488 is a medium-severity vulnerability in cilium, published on 15 Aug 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution with an eBPF-based dataplane. Prior to versions 1.14.14 and 1.15.8, a race condition in the Cilium agent can cause the agent to ignore labels that should be applied to a node. This could in turn cause CiliumClusterwideNetworkPolicies intended for nodes with the ignored label to not apply, leading to policy bypass. This issue has been patched in Cilium v1.14.14 and v1.15.8 As the underlying issue depends on a race condition, users unable to upgrade can restart the Cilium agent on affected nodes until the affected policies are confirmed to be working as expected.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-42488?

8 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/cilium/cilium, cilium and cilium-operator. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `github.com/cilium/cilium` | Go | All versions | 1.14.14, 1.15.8 |
| `github.com/cilium/cilium` | Go | All versions | 1.14.14 |
| `github.com/cilium/cilium` | Go | All versions | 1.14.14 |
| `github.com/cilium/cilium` | Go | From 1.15.0 | 1.15.8 |
| `github.com/cilium/cilium` | Go | From 1.15.0 | 1.15.8 |
| `cilium` | Bitnami | From 1.15.4 | 1.16.0 |
| `cilium-operator` | Bitnami | From 1.15.4 | 1.16.0 |
| `hubble-relay` | Bitnami | All versions | 1.16.0 |

Products: Cilium Cilium.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-42488?

Upgrade github.com/cilium/cilium to a fixed version for your release line: 1.14.14 or 1.15.8.

## Is CVE-2024-42488 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-42488 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in cilium

- [CVE-2026-49445](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-49445/): Cilium: Sensitive information disclosure and cluster disruption via local Envoy admin socket access (critical 9.2)
- [CVE-2022-29178](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-29178/): Incorrect Default Permissions in Cilium (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2024-28860](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-28860/): Insecure IPsec transport encryption in Cilium (high 8.0)
- [CVE-2026-41520](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41520/): Cillium exposes sensitive information included in the cilium-bugtool debug archive (high 7.9)
- [CVE-2024-37307](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-37307/): Cilium leaks sensitive information in cilium-bugtool (high 7.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-42488 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-42488 is a medium-severity vulnerability in cilium, published on 15 Aug 2024. 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-2024-42488 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- github.com/cilium/cilium (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 1.14.14, 1.15.8
- github.com/cilium/cilium (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 1.14.14
- github.com/cilium/cilium (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 1.14.14
- github.com/cilium/cilium (Go): affected from 1.15.0; fixed in 1.15.8
- github.com/cilium/cilium (Go): affected from 1.15.0; fixed in 1.15.8
- cilium (Bitnami): affected from 1.15.4; fixed in 1.16.0
- cilium-operator (Bitnami): affected from 1.15.4; fixed in 1.16.0
- hubble-relay (Bitnami): affected all versions; fixed in 1.16.0

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-2024-42488/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42488/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-42488
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-42488
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-42488

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42488/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.