CVE-2021-39156

HIGH

Istio < 1.9.8 - Authorization Bypass via URI Fragment

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 1 public exploit for CVE-2021-39156. PoCs published by anonymousAIware2026.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This repository demonstrates CVE-2021-39156, an SSRF vulnerability in XStream where an attacker can bypass Istio AuthorizationPolicy by exploiting a misconfigured API gateway route. The PoC includes a microservice architecture with an API gateway that forwards requests to internal services, bypassing the deny rule for the /admin endpoint.

Description

Istio is an open source platform for providing a uniform way to integrate microservices, manage traffic flow across microservices, enforce policies and aggregate telemetry data. Istio 1.11.0, 1.10.3 and below, and 1.9.7 and below contain a remotely exploitable vulnerability where an HTTP request with `#fragment` in the path may bypass Istio’s URI path based authorization policies. Patches are available in Istio 1.11.1, Istio 1.10.4 and Istio 1.9.8. As a work around a Lua filter may be written to normalize the path.

Exploits (1)

nomisec WORKING POC
by anonymousAIware2026 · poc
https://github.com/anonymousAIware2026/MicroserviceCVE-2021-39156

This repository demonstrates CVE-2021-39156, an SSRF vulnerability in XStream where an attacker can bypass Istio AuthorizationPolicy by exploiting a misconfigured API gateway route. The PoC includes a microservice architecture with an API gateway that forwards requests to internal services, bypassing the deny rule for the /admin endpoint.

Classification
Working Poc 90%
Attack Type
Ssrf
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Istio AuthorizationPolicy with XStream (version not specified)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Kubernetes cluster with Istio installed · Microservices deployed with misconfigured API gateway routes
devstral-2 · analyzed Apr 10, 2026 Full analysis →

References (2)

Core 2
Core References

Scores

CVSS v3 8.1
EPSS 0.0024
EPSS Percentile 46.9%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Details

CWE
CWE-706 CWE-863
Status published
Products (2)
istio/istio < 1.9.8
istio.io/istio 0 - 1.9.8Go
Published Aug 24, 2021
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026