CVE-2022-21701

MEDIUM

Istio 1.12.0-1.12.1 - Privilege Escalation via Kubernetes Gateway API

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In versions 1.12.0 and 1.12.1 Istio is vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack. Users who have `CREATE` permission for `gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io` objects can escalate this privilege to create other resources that they may not have access to, such as `Pod`. This vulnerability impacts only an Alpha level feature, the Kubernetes Gateway API. This is not the same as the Istio Gateway type (gateways.networking.istio.io), which is not vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to resolve this issue. Users unable to upgrade should implement any of the following which will prevent this vulnerability: Remove the gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io CustomResourceDefinition, set PILOT_ENABLE_GATEWAY_API_DEPLOYMENT_CONTROLLER=true environment variable in Istiod, or remove CREATE permissions for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects from untrusted users.

References (2)

Core 2
Core References
Mitigation, Release Notes, Vendor Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://istio.io/latest/news/releases/1.12.x/announcing-1.12.2/

Scores

CVSS v3 5.0
EPSS 0.0077
EPSS Percentile 50.9%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-863
Status published
Products (2)
istio/istio 1.12.0 (8 CPE variants)
istio/istio 1.12.1
Published Jan 19, 2022
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026