GHSA-24qp-4xx8-3jvj is a low-severity (CVSS 3.2) CWE-863 vulnerability in github.com/cilium/cilium. A fix is available for github.com/cilium/cilium — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Cilium East-west traffic not subject to egress policy enforcement for requests via Gateway API load balancers
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-24qp-4xx8-3jvj.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-24qp-4xx8-3jvj plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/cilium/cilium🐹github.com/cilium/cilium🐹github.com/cilium/ciliumReal-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
For Cilium users who:
- Use Gateway API for Ingress for some services AND
- Use LB-IPAM or BGP for LB Service implementation AND
- Use network policies to block egress traffic from workloads in a namespace to workloads in other namespaces
Egress traffic from workloads covered by such network policies to LoadBalancers configured by Gateway resources will incorrectly be allowed.
LoadBalancer resources not deployed via a Gateway API configuration are not affected by this issue.
Patches
This issue was fixed by https://github.com/cilium/proxy/pull/1172.
This issue affects:
- Cilium v1.15 between v1.15.0 and v1.15.14 inclusive
- Cilium v1.16 between v1.16.0 and v1.16.7 inclusive
- Cilium v1.17 between v1.17.0 and v1.17.1 inclusive
This issue is fixed in:
- Cilium v1.15.15
- Cilium v1.16.8
- Cilium v1.17.2
Workarounds
A Clusterwide Cilium Network Policy can be used to work around this issue for users who are unable to upgrade. An outline of such a policy is provided below:
apiVersion: "cilium.io/v2"
kind: CiliumClusterwideNetworkPolicy
metadata:
name: "workaround"
spec:
endpointSelector:
matchExpressions:
- key: reserved:ingress
operator: Exists
ingress:
- fromEntities:
- world
- The policy opens up connectivity from all locations outside the cluster into the Cilium Ingress Gateway.
- The policy establishes a default deny for all other traffic towards the Cilium Ingress Gateway, including all in-cluster sources.
- It is possible to tailor the policy to more narrowly allow inbound traffic while creating a default deny posture for traffic between namespaces. Users should edit the policy to bring it in line with the security requirements particular to their environments.
Acknowledgements
The Cilium community has worked together with members of the Isovalent team to prepare these mitigations. Special thanks to @jrajahalme for the fix.
For more information
If you think you have found a vulnerability affecting Cilium, we strongly encourage you to report it to our security mailing list at [email protected]. This is a private mailing list for the Cilium security team, and your report will be treated as top priority.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/cilium/cilium | ≥ 1.16.0&&< 1.16.8 | 1.16.8go get github.com/cilium/cilium@v1.16.8 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/cilium/cilium | ≥ 1.17.0&&< 1.17.2 | 1.17.2go get github.com/cilium/cilium@v1.17.2 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/cilium/cilium | ≥ 1.15.0&&< 1.15.15 | 1.15.15go get github.com/cilium/cilium@v1.15.15 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/cilium/cilium, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/cilium/cilium to 1.16.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-24qp-4xx8-3jvj is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-24qp-4xx8-3jvj can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-24qp-4xx8-3jvj. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-24qp-4xx8-3jvj in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-24qp-4xx8-3jvj across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.