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IstioApplication

CVE-2022-31045

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-06-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.12.8 / 1.13.5 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In affected versions ill-formed headers sent to Envoy in certain configurations can lead to unexpected memory access resulting in undefined behavior or crashing. Users are most likely at risk if they have an Istio ingress Gateway exposed to external traffic. This vulnerability has been resolved in versions 1.12.8, 1.13.5, and 1.14.1. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

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

Ill-formed HTTP headers sent to Envoy in Istio ingress Gateway configurations can lead to unexpected memory access, resulting in undefined behavior or crashes. This is a memory safety vulnerability in the data plane proxy triggered by malicious or malformed header input.

MitigationUpgrade Istio deployment to version 1.12.8, 1.13.5, or 1.14.1. No workarounds exist; immediate patching is required given the critical severity and external exposure vector.

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
IstioApplication
Affected:< 1.12.8>= 1.13.0, < 1.13.5= 1.14.0

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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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. Check Istio control plane version
    Run `istioctl version` or `kubectl get pods -n istio-system -o jsonpath='{.items[*].spec.containers[*].image}'` to retrieve the Istio version deployed
    Affected if The version shown is < 1.12.8, or >= 1.13.0 and < 1.13.5, or exactly 1.14.0
  2. Check Istio ingress gateway version
    Run `kubectl get pods -n istio-system -l app=istio-ingressgateway -o jsonpath='{.items[*].spec.containers[*].image}'` to retrieve the ingress gateway image version
    Affected if The ingress gateway version matches the affected Istio version ranges from step 1
  3. Confirm ingress gateway is exposed
    Run `kubectl get svc -n istio-system istio-ingressgateway` to verify an external-facing service exists
    Affected if A LoadBalancer or NodePort service type is present, indicating external exposure to malformed HTTP headers
  4. Verify Gateway resource configuration
    Run `kubectl get gateway --all-namespaces -o yaml` to list Gateway resources that bind to the ingress gateway
    Affected if Any Gateway resource exists, as this configures the ingress gateway to accept HTTP traffic where malformed headers could trigger the vulnerability

If the Istio version falls within the affected ranges (less than 1.12.8, 1.13.0 through 1.13.5, or exactly 1.14.0) AND the ingress gateway is externally exposed, the environment is vulnerable to this CVE.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.12.8 / 1.13.5 or later
Fixed in 1.12.81.13.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Istio deployment to version 1.12.8, 1.13.5, or 1.14.1. No workarounds exist; immediate patching is required given the critical severity and external exposure vector.

Recommended fix High confidence

1.12.8, 1.13.5, or 1.14.1 (recommended: 1.14.1)

  1. Identify the currently running Istio version using `istioctl version` or checking the Istio operator deployment
  2. Determine the appropriate target version based on your current major minor branch (1.12.x → 1.12.8, 1.13.x → 1.13.5, or 1.14.x → 1.14.1)
  3. Upgrade Istio control plane using `istioctl upgrade` or via the Istio operator, specifying the target version
  4. Verify the upgrade completed successfully by checking `istioctl version` and pod status
  5. If using Istio ingress Gateway exposed to external traffic, verify Gateway functionality is restored
  6. Monitor logs for any post-upgrade issues

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Istio Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,380
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,808.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2022-31045 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