CVE-2020-12605
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 · uneditedEnvoy version 1.14.2, 1.13.2, 1.12.4 or earlier may consume excessive amounts of memory when processing HTTP/1.1 headers with long field names or requests with long URLs.
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 confidenceEnvoy proxy versions 1.14.2, 1.13.2, 1.12.4 and earlier are vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack via HTTP/1.1 header parsing. The parser consumes excessive memory when processing requests containing extremely long header field names or URLs, leading to memory exhaustion and potential service failure.
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<= 1.12.4= 1.13.2= 1.14.2CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine installed Envoy versionRun 'envoy --version' or check the Envoy binary path in use (e.g., /usr/local/bin/envoy, /usr/bin/envoy) and run --version on that binaryAffected if Version is 1.12.4 or earlier, 1.13.2, or 1.14.2
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Verify HTTP/1.1 listener configurationReview Envoy configuration files for any 'http_protocol_options' or 'http' listener configurations. HTTP/1.1 is enabled by default unless explicitly disabledAffected if HTTP/1.1 protocol support is enabled (this is the default state)
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Check for header field size limitsSearch Envoy configuration for 'max_request_headers_kb' or similar header size limits in the http_connection_manager filterAffected if No max_request_headers_kb or equivalent limit is configured, meaning default Envoy limits apply which may not sufficiently constrain extremely long headers
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Check for URL length limitsSearch Envoy configuration for any path or URL length restrictions configured at the listener or route levelAffected if No URL length limits are configured, allowing arbitrarily long request URLs
You are affected if your Envoy version is 1.12.4 or earlier, 1.13.2, or 1.14.2 and HTTP/1.1 is enabled (the default) without compensating header or URL length limits in place.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpgrade Envoy to a version beyond 1.14.2 (such as 1.14.3 or later) or implement HTTP request size limits at upstream load balancers to filter abnormally long headers or URLs before they reach Envoy.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-12605 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-12605 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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