CVE-2025-23028
MEDIUMCVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Lifecycle Timeline
3Description
Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution with an eBPF-based dataplane. A denial of service vulnerability affects versions 1.14.0 through 1.14.7, 1.15.0 through 1.15.11, and 1.16.0 through 1.16.4. In a Kubernetes cluster where Cilium is configured to proxy DNS traffic, an attacker can crash Cilium agents by sending a crafted DNS response to workloads from outside the cluster. For traffic that is allowed but without using DNS-based policy, the dataplane will continue to pass traffic as configured at the time of the DoS. For workloads that have DNS-based policy configured, existing connections may continue to operate, and new connections made without relying on DNS resolution may continue to be established, but new connections which rely on DNS resolution may be disrupted. Any configuration changes that affect the impacted agent may not be applied until the agent is able to restart. This issue is fixed in Cilium v1.14.18, v1.15.12, and v1.16.5. No known workarounds are available.
Analysis
Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution with an eBPF-based dataplane. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.3), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Allocation of Resources Without Limits vulnerability could allow attackers to exhaust system resources through uncontrolled allocation.
Technical Context
This vulnerability is classified as Allocation of Resources Without Limits (CWE-770), which allows attackers to exhaust system resources through uncontrolled allocation. Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution with an eBPF-based dataplane. A denial of service vulnerability affects versions 1.14.0 through 1.14.7, 1.15.0 through 1.15.11, and 1.16.0 through 1.16.4. In a Kubernetes cluster where Cilium is configured to proxy DNS traffic, an attacker can crash Cilium agents by sending a crafted DNS response to workloads from outside the cluster. For traffic that is allowed but without using DNS-based policy, the dataplane will continue to pass traffic as configured at the time of the DoS. For workloads that have DNS-based policy configured, existing connections may continue to operate, and new connections made without relying on DNS resolution may continue to be established, but new connections which rely on DNS resolution may be disrupted. Any configuration changes that affect the impacted agent may not be applied until the agent is able to restart. This issue is fixed in Cilium v1.14.18, v1.15.12, and v1.16.5. No known workarounds are available. Affected products include: Cilium. Version information: through 1.14.7.
Affected Products
Cilium.
Remediation
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Set resource limits, implement rate limiting, validate input sizes.
Priority Score
Vendor Status
Share
External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today