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EnvoyApplication · Envoyproxy

CVE-2020-12603

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-07-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.12.4 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Envoy version 1.14.2, 1.13.2, 1.12.4 or earlier may consume excessive amounts of memory when proxying HTTP/2 requests or responses with many small (i.e. 1 byte) data frames.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Envoy proxy versions 1.14.2, 1.13.2, 1.12.4 and earlier contain a memory consumption vulnerability where handling HTTP/2 requests or responses with many small (1 byte) data frames can cause excessive memory allocation, leading to potential denial of service.

MitigationUpgrade Envoy to a version beyond the affected releases (1.14.2, 1.13., 1.12.4). Implement HTTP/2 flow control limits or request size limits as a defensive measure while planning the upgrade.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
EnvoyApplication
Affected:<= 1.12.4= 1.13.2= 1.14.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Envoy version
    Run `envoy --version` or check the binary metadata to determine the installed Envoy version
    Affected if The installed version is 1.14.2, 1.13.2, or any version <= 1.12.4
  2. Verify HTTP/2 is enabled
    Inspect the Envoy configuration file (typically envoy.yaml) and look for http2_protocol_options in the listener or cluster configuration, or check if any routes specify HTTP/2 as the upstream protocol
    Affected if HTTP/2 protocol support is enabled in the Envoy listener or cluster configuration
  3. Check for HTTP/2 traffic handling
    Review Envoy access logs or metrics for HTTP/2 connections. Use `envoyctl proxy-status` or examine listener configuration to confirm HTTP/2 traffic is being accepted
    Affected if Envoy is actively accepting or proxying HTTP/2 requests or responses

You are affected if your Envoy version is 1.14.2, 1.13.2, or <= 1.12.4 AND HTTP/2 is enabled and handling traffic.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.12.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Envoy to a version beyond the affected releases (1.14.2, 1.13., 1.12.4). Implement HTTP/2 flow control limits or request size limits as a defensive measure while planning the upgrade.

Fix this in Envoy Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,130
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-12603 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data