Unauthenticated control plane denial of service attack in Istio
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 fixed, 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-400.
Summary
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.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA istio (istio) Fixed in 1.12.5, 1.13.2
Red Hat 2 advisories
- RHSA-2022:1275 Released 2022-04-07 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1.2 security update
- OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1 servicemesh-2.1.2-4.el8, servicemesh-cni-2.1.2-4.el8, servicemesh-pilot-agent-2.1.2-4.el8 +3
- RHSA-2022:1276 Released 2022-04-07 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0.9 security update
- OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0 kiali-v1.24.7.redhat1-1.el8, servicemesh-2.0.9-3.el8, servicemesh-istioctl-2.0.9-3.el8 +6
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0 | Affected | No fix yet |
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1 | Affected | No fix yet |
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0 | Fixed | RHSA-2022:1276 |
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1 | Fixed | RHSA-2022:1275 |
Not affected: 2 products
- OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0
- OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2022-24726
References
More Istio vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-79288 Out-of-bounds write in Google Brotli decoder KEVCVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.2
- TI-2023-23979 The HTTP/2 protocol allows a denial of service (server resource consumption) because… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2022-06055 Authorization Policy bypass in Istio CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2021-11909 Istio before 1.8.6 and 1.9.x before 1.9.5 contains a remotely exploitable vulnerability… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-24390 Istio JWKS resolver to prevent private key material from being exposed when JWKS fetch fails. CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2022-13090 Ill-formed headers may lead to unexpected behavior in Istio CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2022-24726 · CVE Program
- CVE-2022-24726 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- CVE-2022-24726 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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