GHSA-5vxx-c285-pcq4
MEDIUMIn Cilium, packets from terminating endpoints may not be encrypted in Wireguard-enabled clusters
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.
Blast Radius
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
When using Wireguard transparent encryption in a Cilium cluster, packets that originate from a terminating endpoint can leave the source node without encryption due to a race condition in how traffic is processed by Cilium.
Patches
This issue has been patched in https://github.com/cilium/cilium/pull/38592.
This issue affects:
- Cilium v1.15 between v1.15.0 and v1.15.15 inclusive
- Cilium v1.16 between v1.16.0 and v1.16.8 inclusive
- Cilium v1.17 between v1.17.0 and v1.17.2 inclusive
This issue is fixed in:
- Cilium v1.15.16
- Cilium v1.16.9
- Cilium v1.17.3
Workarounds
There is no workaround to this issue.
Acknowledgements
The Cilium community has worked together with members of Isovalent to prepare these mitigations. Special thanks to @gandro and @pippolo84 for reporting this issue and to @julianwiedmann for the patch.
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 | ≥ 1.13.0&&< 1.15.16 | 1.15.16 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/cilium/cilium | ≥ 1.16.0&&< 1.16.9 | 1.16.9 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/cilium/cilium | ≥ 1.17.0&&< 1.17.3 | 1.17.3 |
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. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/cilium/cilium to 1.15.16 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5vxx-c285-pcq4 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-5vxx-c285-pcq4 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-5vxx-c285-pcq4. 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-5vxx-c285-pcq4 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-5vxx-c285-pcq4 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.