CVE-2022-21701
Privileged Escalation in Istio
Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In versions 1.12.0 and 1.12.1 Istio is vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack. Users who have CREATE permission for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects can escalate this privilege to create other resources that they may not have access to, such as Pod. This vulnerability impacts only an Alpha level feature, the Kubernetes Gateway API. This is not the same as the Istio Gateway type (gateways.networking.istio.io), which is not vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to resolve this issue. Users unable to upgrade should implement any of the following which will prevent this vulnerability: Remove the gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io CustomResourceDefinition, set PILOT_ENABLE_GATEWAY_API_DEPLOYMENT_CONTROLLER=true environment variable in Istiod, or remove CREATE permissions for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects from untrusted users.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges needed
- Low
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
Privileged Escalation in Istio
Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In versions 1.12.0 and 1.12.1 Istio is vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack. Users who have CREATE permission for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects can escalate this privilege to create other resources that they may not have access to, such as Pod. This vulnerability impacts only an Alpha level feature, the Kubernetes Gateway API. This is not the same as the Istio Gateway type (gateways.networking.istio.io), which is not vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to resolve this issue. Users unable to upgrade should implement any of the following which will prevent this vulnerability: Remove the gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io CustomResourceDefinition, set PILOT_ENABLE_GATEWAY_API_DEPLOYMENT_CONTROLLER=true environment variable in Istiod, or remove CREATE permissions for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects from untrusted users.
- Record
CVE-2022-21701- CVSS 3.1
- 5.0 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-863
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2022-26894
Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In versions 1.12.0 and 1.12.1 Istio is vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack. Users who have CREATE permission for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects can escalate this privilege to create other resources that they may not have access to, such as Pod. This vulnerability impacts only an Alpha level feature, the Kubernetes Gateway API. This is not the same as the Istio Gateway type (gateways.networking.istio.io), which is not vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to resolve this issue. Users unable to upgrade should implement any of the following which will prevent this vulnerability: Remove the gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io CustomResourceDefinition, set PILOT_ENABLE_GATEWAY_API_DEPLOYMENT_CONTROLLER=true environment variable in Istiod, or remove CREATE permissions for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects from untrusted users.
- Record
EUVD-2022-26894- CVSS 3.1
- 5.0 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In versions 1.12.0 and 1.12.1 Istio is vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack. Users who have CREATE permission for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects can escalate this privilege to create other resources that they may not have access to, such as Pod. This vulnerability impacts only an Alpha level feature, the Kubernetes Gateway API. This is not the same as the Istio Gateway type (gateways.networking.istio.io), which is not vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to resolve this issue. Users unable to upgrade should implement any of the following which will prevent this vulnerability: Remove the gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io CustomResourceDefinition, set PILOT_ENABLE_GATEWAY_API_DEPLOYMENT_CONTROLLER=true environment variable in Istiod, or remove CREATE permissions for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects from untrusted users.
- Record
CVE-2022-21701- CVSS 3.1
- 5.0 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L - CVSS 3.1
- 8.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 6.0 Medium
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-863
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
Privileged Escalation in Istio
Istio is an open platform to connect, manage, and secure microservices. In versions 1.12.0 and 1.12.1 Istio is vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack. Users who have CREATE permission for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects can escalate this privilege to create other resources that they may not have access to, such as Pod. This vulnerability impacts only an Alpha level feature, the Kubernetes Gateway API. This is not the same as the Istio Gateway type (gateways.networking.istio.io), which is not vulnerable. Users are advised to upgrade to resolve this issue. Users unable to upgrade should implement any of the following which will prevent this vulnerability: Remove the gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io CustomResourceDefinition, set PILOT_ENABLE_GATEWAY_API_DEPLOYMENT_CONTROLLER=true environment variable in Istiod, or remove CREATE permissions for gateways.gateway.networking.k8s.io objects from untrusted users.
- Record
CVE-2022-21701- CVSS 3.1
- 5.0 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-863
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| first indexed | CVE List, EUVD, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2022-21701 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.0) in Istio, published January 19, 2022. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.77%, the 55th percentile. No source names a fixed version.