Envoy Gateway: Nil-dereference when SecurityPolicy targets TCPRoute without spec.authorization
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-476.
Summary
Envoy Gateway is an open source project for managing Envoy Proxy as a standalone or Kubernetes-based application gateway. Prior to 1.7.4 and 1.8.1, translateSecurityPolicyForRoute in internal/gatewayapi/securitypolicy.go dereferences a nil authorization value when a namespace-scoped tenant creates a SecurityPolicy targeting a TCPRoute and omits spec.authorization. The persistent object triggers the panic on every reconcile; recovery in message/watchutil.go keeps the process alive but unwinds the runner/runner.go handle callback, stalling controller-wide xDS and infrastructure intermediate-representation publishing until an administrator deletes the object. The data plane continues to serve the last known good configuration while publication is stalled. This issue is fixed in versions 1.7.4 and 1.8.1.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| envoyproxy | gateway | before 1.7.4; 1.8.0-rc.0 to before 1.8.1 | 1.7.4, 1.8.1 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/envoyproxy/gateway (Go) | 1.8.0-rc.0 to before 1.8.1 | 1.8.1 | Patch available | GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68 |
| — | github.com/envoyproxy/gateway (Go) | before 1.7.4 | 1.7.4 | Patch available | GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68 |
- gateway Vendorenvoyproxy Affected before 1.7.4; 1.8.0-rc.0 to before 1.8.1 Fixed in 1.7.4, 1.8.1 Patch available CNA
- github.com/envoyproxy/gateway (Go) Vendor— Affected 1.8.0-rc.0 to before 1.8.1 Fixed in 1.8.1 Patch available GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68
- github.com/envoyproxy/gateway (Go) Vendor— Affected before 1.7.4 Fixed in 1.7.4 Patch available GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68
CPE names Threatist (inferred) · 1
Inferred from how NVD named this product before; not given by a source.
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:envoyproxy:gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | — | — | envoyproxy |
- cpe:2.3:a:envoyproxy:gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions — — ·envoyproxy
Remediation
- Fix · CNA gateway (envoyproxy) Fixed in 1.7.4, 1.8.1
- Fix · GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68 github.com/envoyproxy/gateway (Go) Fixed in 1.8.1 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68 github.com/envoyproxy/gateway (Go) Fixed in 1.7.4 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Connectivity Link 1 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-53719
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 CVSS score added · Red Hat
References
Other 10
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/security/advisories/GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/pull/9171
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/pull/9172
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/pull/9173
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/commit/5a78db82b7cf4fc5bebbeda2c50952892038a464
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/commit/96e2b750868a459ace4b8b68e6a6e4fb0152b9b7
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/commit/b4737180c7e597490c6363075c565fa8cf24eead
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.7.4
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway/releases/tag/v1.8.1
- https://github.com/envoyproxy/gateway
More envoyproxy 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-2024-20001 HTTP/2: CPU exhaustion due to CONTINUATION frame flood CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2024-18524 HTTP/2: memory exhaustion due to CONTINUATION frame flood CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2023-12215 Envoy client may fake the header `x-envoy-original-path` CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.1
- TI-2023-18002 Envoy vulnerable to OAuth2 credentials exploit with permanent validity CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-53719 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-53719 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-m2v6-2jmh-4c68 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-53719 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences