How severe is GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg?

GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg has a CVSS score of 9.3/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg?

GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg affects the following packages: istio.io/istio (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg?

Update istio.io/istio to 1.1.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for istio.io/istio. 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.

How do I mitigate GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

When was GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg was published on February 15, 2022 and was last updated on November 8, 2023. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹 Go

GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg

CRITICAL

GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.3) vulnerability in istio.io/istio. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.

Istio may not check inbound TCP connections against istio-policy

Also known asCVE-2019-12243

Published

Feb 15, 2022

Updated

Nov 8, 2023

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

1 known

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐹istio.io/istio

Real-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

Istio 1.1.x through 1.1.6 has Incorrect Access Control. When disablePolicyChecks is set to false, inbound TCP connections do not generate Check requests to istio-policy and external authorization is not applied.

This behavior is a result of a change to istio/pilot/pkg/networking/plugin/mixer/mixer.go in 1.1.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`istio.io/istio`	≥ 1.1.0&&< 1.1.7	1.1.7

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

Istio 1.1.x through 1.1.6 has Incorrect Access Control.

istio.ioNVDAug 2020

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for istio.io/istio. 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 istio.io/istio to 1.1.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg 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-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg 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-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Istio 1.1.x through 1.1.6 has Incorrect Access Control. When `disablePolicyChecks` is set to `false`, inbound TCP connections do not generate Check requests to istio-policy and external authorization is not applied. This behavior is a result of a change to `istio/pilot/pkg/networking/plugin/mixer/mixer.go` in 1.1.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-6g5f-f5pm-mjrg across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works