Envoy Gateway: xDS Control Plane Information Disclosure when operating in GatewayNamespaceModeGHSA-22xc-xg2r-9j7v
HIGHGHSA-22xc-xg2r-9j7v is a high-severity (CVSS 7.4) Missing Authentication vulnerability in github.com/envoyproxy/gateway. A fix is available for github.com/envoyproxy/gateway — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-22xc-xg2r-9j7v.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-22xc-xg2r-9j7v by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/envoyproxy/gateway🐹github.com/envoyproxy/gatewayReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
When Envoy Gateway runs in GatewayNamespaceMode (provider.kubernetes.deploy.type=GatewayNamespace), the xDS gRPC server is configured with a StreamInterceptor for JWT authentication but no UnaryInterceptor. The go-control-plane xDS server exposes both streaming and unary (Fetch) RPC methods for all registered discovery services. Since there is no unary interceptor, these Fetch endpoints are completely unauthenticated.
Additionally, the JWT authentication interceptor in GatewayNamespaceMode only validates tokens when the received gRPC message is of type discoveryv3.DeltaDiscoveryRequest . If the message is a discoveryv3.DiscoveryRequest — used by the State-of-the-World (SotW) xDS protocol — the type assertion fails, the validation block is skipped entirely, and RecvMsg returns nil (success) without any authentication.
Any pod in the cluster that can reach the xDS server (port 18000) can use the SotW protocol to bypass JWT authentication and access:
- TLS private keys via StreamSecrets (SDS)
- All xDS resources via StreamAggregatedResources (ADS)
- Backend endpoints via StreamClusters / StreamEndpoints (CDS/EDS)
- Routing rules via StreamRoutes / StreamListeners (RDS/LDS)
Credits
Envoy Gateway thanks @dashingDragon and @Donjon-Cerberus for reporting this issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/envoyproxy/gateway | ≥ 1.8.0-rc.0&&< 1.8.1 | 1.8.1go get github.com/envoyproxy/gateway@v1.8.1 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/envoyproxy/gateway | all versions | 1.7.4go get github.com/envoyproxy/gateway@v1.7.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/envoyproxy/gateway, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/envoyproxy/gateway to 1.8.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-22xc-xg2r-9j7v is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-22xc-xg2r-9j7v in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.