CVE-2022-39278

Istio vulnerable to denial of service attack due to Golang Regex Library

Description

Istio is an open platform-independent service mesh that provides traffic management, policy enforcement, and telemetry collection. Prior to versions 1.15.2, 1.14.5, and 1.13.9, the Istio control plane, istiod, is vulnerable to a request processing error, allowing a malicious attacker that sends a specially crafted or oversized message which results in the control plane crashing when the Kubernetes validating or mutating webhook service 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 topologies, this port is exposed over the public internet. Versions 1.15.2, 1.14.5, and 1.13.9 contain patches for this issue. There are no effective workarounds, beyond upgrading. This bug is due to an error in `regexp.Compile` in Go.

Category

7.5
CVSS
Severity: High
CVSS 3.1 •
EPSS 0.08%
Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory istio.io Third-Party Advisory istio.io Third-Party Advisory istio.io
Affected: istio istio
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2022-39278?
CVE-2022-39278 has been scored as a high severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2022-39278?
To fix CVE-2022-39278, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2022-39278 being actively exploited in the wild?
As for now, there are no information to confirm that CVE-2022-39278 is being actively exploited. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2022-39278?
CVE-2022-39278 affects istio istio.
This platform uses data from the NIST NVD, MITRE CVE, MITRE CWE, First.org and CISA KEV but is not endorsed or certified by these entities. CVE is a registred trademark of the MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CVE content is MITRE's CVE web site. CWE is a registred trademark of the MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CWE content is MITRE's CWE web site.
© 2025 Under My Watch. All Rights Reserved.