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IstioApplication

CVE-2022-39278

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-10-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.13.9 / 1.14.5 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
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.

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

Istio's istiod control plane contains a vulnerability in the regexp.Compile Go function. Attackers can send specially crafted or oversized messages to the Kubernetes validating/mutating webhook endpoint on TLS port 15017, causing istiod to crash. No authentication is required, though the endpoint is typically cluster-local.

MitigationUpgrade Istio to version 1.15.2, 1.14.5, or 1.13.9 or later. There are no effective workarounds; exposure should be restricted to cluster-local traffic 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
IstioApplication
Affected:< 1.13.9>= 1.14.0, < 1.14.5>= 1.15.0, < 1.15.2

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 installed Istio version
    Run 'kubectl get pods -n istio-system -l app=istiod -o jsonpath=\'{.items[*].spec.containers[*].image}\'' or check your Istio operator deployment version
    Affected if The version is < 1.13.9, or >= 1.14.0 and < 1.14.5, or >= 1.15.0 and < 1.15.2
  2. Confirm istiod webhook port exposure
    Check if the istiod service on port 15017 is reachable from outside the cluster by reviewing NetworkPolicy, service type, or firewall rules. Run 'kubectl get svc istiod -n istio-system -o yaml' to see service configuration
    Affected if Port 15017 is exposed to untrusted networks beyond cluster-local traffic
  3. Verify default istiod listener configuration
    By default istiod listens on port 15017 for webhook traffic. Confirm istiod is running with 'kubectl get pods -n istio-system -l app=istiod'
    Affected if Istiod is running and the webhook endpoint is active on port 15017

You are affected if your Istio version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND the istiod webhook port 15017 is accessible beyond cluster-local boundaries.

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 1.13.9 / 1.14.5 / 1.15.2 or later
Fixed in 1.13.91.14.51.15.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Istio to version 1.15.2, 1.14.5, or 1.13.9 or later. There are no effective workarounds; exposure should be restricted to cluster-local traffic while planning the upgrade.

Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to Istio 1.15.2 (or 1.14.5 or 1.13.9)

  1. Review Istio upgrade documentation at https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/upgrade/
  2. Ensure you have a backup of your current Istio configuration
  3. Determine your current Istio version using `istioctl version`
  4. Upgrade Istio to version 1.15.2, 1.14.5, or 1.13.9 using `istioctl upgrade` or your preferred installation method
  5. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking `istioctl version` and confirming all pods are running
  6. Test your workloads to ensure traffic is flowing correctly

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

Fix this in Istio Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,950
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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-2022-39278 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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