Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In affected versions the Istio control plane, `istiod`, is vulnerable to a request processing error, allowing a malicious attacker that sends a specially crafted message which results in the control plane crashing. This endpoint is served over TLS port 15012, 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 [multicluster](https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/install/multicluster/primary-remote/) topologies, this port is exposed over the public internet. There are no effective workarounds, beyond upgrading. Limiting network access to Istiod to the minimal set of clients can help lessen the scope of the vulnerability to some extent.

There are packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability referenced in the following CVE:

  - Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In affected versions the Istio
    control plane, `istiod`, is vulnerable to a request processing error, allowing a malicious attacker that
    sends a specially crafted message which results in the control plane crashing. This endpoint is served
    over TLS port 15012, 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 [multicluster](https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/install/multicluster/primary-
    remote/) topologies, this port is exposed over the public internet. There are no effective workarounds,
    beyond upgrading. Limiting network access to Istiod to the minimal set of clients can help lessen the
    scope of the vulnerability to some extent. (CVE-2022-23635)

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 8 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2022:1276 advisory.

    Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh is Red Hat's distribution of the Istio service mesh project, tailored for     installation into an on-premise OpenShift Container Platform installation.

    This advisory covers the RPM packages for the release.

    Security Fix(es):

    * gogo/protobuf: plugin/unmarshal/unmarshal.go lacks certain index validation (CVE-2021-3121)

    * envoy: Incorrect configuration handling allows mTLS session re-use without re-validation     (CVE-2022-21654)

    * envoy: Incorrect handling of internal redirects to routes with a direct response entry (CVE-2022-21655)

    * istio: Unauthenticated control plane denial of service attack due to stack exhaustion (CVE-2022-24726)

    * golang.org/x/text: Panic in language.ParseAcceptLanguage while parsing -u- extension (CVE-2020-28851)

    * golang.org/x/text: Panic in language.ParseAcceptLanguage while processing bcp47 tag (CVE-2020-28852)

    * nodejs-axios: Regular expression denial of service in trim function (CVE-2021-3749)

    * ulikunitz/xz: Infinite loop in readUvarint allows for denial of service (CVE-2021-29482)

    * golang: net: incorrect parsing of extraneous zero characters at the beginning of an IP address octet     (CVE-2021-29923)

    * golang: net/http/httputil: panic due to racy read of persistConn after handler panic (CVE-2021-36221)

    * golang.org/x/crypto: empty plaintext packet causes panic (CVE-2021-43565)

    * envoy: Null pointer dereference when using JWT filter safe_regex match (CVE-2021-43824)

    * envoy: Use-after-free when response filters increase response data (CVE-2021-43825)

    * envoy: Use-after-free when tunneling TCP over HTTP (CVE-2021-43826)

    * envoy: Stack exhaustion when a cluster is deleted via Cluster Discovery Service (CVE-2022-23606)

    * istio: unauthenticated control plane denial of service attack (CVE-2022-23635)

    For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and     other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 8 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2022:1275 advisory.

    Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh is Red Hat's distribution of the Istio service     mesh project, tailored for installation into an on-premise OpenShift Container     Platform installation.

    This advisory covers the RPM packages for the release.

    Security Fix(es):

    * envoy: Incorrect configuration handling allows mTLS session re-use without re-validation     (CVE-2022-21654)

    * envoy: Incorrect handling of internal redirects to routes with a direct response entry (CVE-2022-21655)

    * istio: Unauthenticated control plane denial of service attack due to stack exhaustion (CVE-2022-24726)

    * envoy: Null pointer dereference when using JWT filter safe_regex match (CVE-2021-43824)

    * envoy: Use-after-free when response filters increase response data (CVE-2021-43825)

    * envoy: Use-after-free when tunneling TCP over HTTP (CVE-2021-43826)

    * envoy: Stack exhaustion when a cluster is deleted via Cluster Discovery Service (CVE-2022-23606)

    * istio: unauthenticated control plane denial of service attack (CVE-2022-23635)

    For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and     other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Type	Severity
412431	SCA: security update for istio.io/istio (GHSA-856q-xv3c-7f2f)	Tenable Cloud Security	SCA Checks	Local	high
412431	SCA: security update for istio.io/istio (GHSA-856q-xv3c-7f2f)	Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security	SCA Checks	Local	high
159603	RHEL 8 : Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.0.9 (RHSA-2022:1276)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	Local	critical
159596	RHEL 8 : Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1.2 (RHSA-2022:1275)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	Local	critical

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2022-23635

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

critical

critical