Istio
CVE-2020-8595
HIGH
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A07:2025 - Authentication Failures
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Authentication mechanism validation
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Defense Evasion, Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 7.3 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could bypass authentication mechanisms to gain unauthorized access by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
Istio versions 1.2.10 (End of Life) and prior, 1.3 through 1.3.7, and 1.4 through 1.4.3 allows authentication bypass. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Improper Authentication vulnerability could allow attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms to gain unauthorized access.
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Implement multi-factor authentication, enforce strong password policies, use proven authentication frameworks.
Affects your stack
Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Improper Authentication (CWE-287), which allows attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms to gain unauthorized access. Istio versions 1.2.10 (End of Life) and prior, 1.3 through 1.3.7, and 1.4 through 1.4.3 allows authentication bypass. The Authentication Policy exact-path matching logic can allow unauthorized access to HTTP paths even if they are configured to be only accessed after presenting a valid JWT token. For example, an attacker can add a ? or
character to a URI that would otherwise satisfy an exact-path match. Affected products include: Istio, Redhat Openshift Service Mesh. Version information: through 1.3.7.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
Istio versions 1.2.10 (End of Life) and prior, 1.3 through 1.3.7, and 1.4 through 1.4.3 allows authentication bypass. The Authentication Policy exact-path matching logic can allow unauthorized access to HTTP paths even if they are configured to be only accessed after presenting a valid JWT token. For example, an attacker can add a ? or
character to a URI that would otherwise satisfy an exact-path match.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
Denial of service against HTTP/2 server implementations allows remote unauthenticated attackers to exhaust server resour
Remote code execution is possible in Node.js releases that bundle a vulnerable Brotli decoder: a malformed brotli-compre
Istio before 1.8.6 and 1.9.x before 1.9.5 contains a remotely exploitable vulnerability where an external client can acc
Istio 1.3.x before 1.3.5 allows Denial of Service because continue_on_listener_filters_timeout is set to True, a related
Envoy 1.12.0 allows a remote denial of service because of resource loops, as demonstrated by a single idle TCP connectio
Istio before 1.1.13 and 1.2.x before 1.2.4 mishandles regular expressions for long URIs, leading to a denial of service
Istio 1.1.x through 1.1.6 has Incorrect Access Control. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is no authent
In Istio 1.5.0 though 1.5.8 and Istio 1.6.0 through 1.6.7, when users specify an AuthorizationPolicy resource with DENY
Istio before 1.8.6 and 1.9.x before 1.9.5 has a remotely exploitable vulnerability where an HTTP request path with multi
Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnera
Istio (1.8.x, 1.9.0-1.9.5 and 1.10.0-1.10.1) contains a remotely exploitable vulnerability where credentials specified i
Authentication enforcement in Istio service mesh fails open: prior to 1.29.1, 1.28.5, and 1.27.8, when the JWKS resolver
Exploit-DB