CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2023-39347NVD status: Modified

cilium: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity

CVE-2023-39347 is a critical-severity insufficient verification of data authenticity vulnerability in cilium, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.0 out of 10. It can be exploited from the same local network by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. Affected cilium versions: >= 1.14.0, < 1.14.2; >= 1.13.0, < 1.13.7; < 1.12.14. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.57% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Patch this week

Critical severity: a successful attack would have severe impact.

What to do

  1. Check which version of cilium you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
  2. Read the advisory on docs.cilium.io for workarounds and exact fixed builds.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
Ciliumcilium>= 1.14.0, < 1.14.2; >= 1.13.0, < 1.13.7; < 1.12.14Not stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
AdjacentThe attacker must be on the same local network segment.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
ChangedThe attack can reach beyond the vulnerable component into other systems.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by NVD.

Scoring systemScoreSeverityScored by
CVSS 3.17.6HighCNA (github.com)
CVSS 3.19.0CriticalNVD

Official description

Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution with an eBPF-based dataplane. An attacker with the ability to update pod labels can cause Cilium to apply incorrect network policies. This issue arises due to the fact that on pod update, Cilium incorrectly uses user-provided pod labels to select the policies which apply to the workload in question. This can affect Cilium network policies that use the namespace, service account or cluster constructs to restrict traffic, Cilium clusterwide network policies that use Cilium namespace labels to select the Pod and Kubernetes network policies. Non-existent construct names can be provided, which bypass all network policies applicable to the construct. For example, providing a pod with a non-existent namespace as the value of the `io.kubernetes.pod.namespace` label results in none of the namespaced CiliumNetworkPolicies applying to the pod in question. This attack requires the attacker to have Kubernetes API Server access, as described in the Cilium Threat Model. This issue has been resolved in: Cilium versions 1.14.2, 1.13.7, and 1.12.14. Users are advised to upgrade. As a workaround an admission webhook can be used to prevent pod label updates to the `k8s:io.kubernetes.pod.namespace` and `io.cilium.k8s.policy.*` keys.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity

The product does not sufficiently verify the origin or authenticity of data, in a way that causes it to accept invalid data.

More Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity vulnerabilities (CWE-345)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: partial).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in cilium

All cilium vulnerabilities

Recent Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity vulnerabilities

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