Description
Istio 1.4.x before 1.4.9 and Istio 1.5.x before 1.5.4 contain the following vulnerability when telemetry v2 is enabled: by sending a specially crafted packet, an attacker could trigger a Null Pointer Exception resulting in a Denial of Service. This could be sent to the ingress gateway or a sidecar, triggering a null pointer exception which results in a denial of service. This also affects servicemesh-proxy where a null pointer exception flaw was found in servicemesh-proxy. When running Telemetry v2 (not on by default in version 1.4.x), an attacker could send a specially crafted packet to the ingress gateway or proxy sidecar, triggering a denial of service.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| istio.io | istio/envoy | >= 1.4.0, < 1.4.9, >= 1.5.0, < 1.5.4 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Service Mesh 1 | servicemesh-proxy | 1.1.2-2.el8 | RHSA-2020:2148 |
Oracle Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 7 | istio +10 | 1.4.10-1.0.1.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kata | 1.7.3-1.0.7.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kata-image | 1.7.3-1.0.5.1.ol7_202007011859 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kata-runtime | 1.7.3-1.0.5.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kernel-uek-container | 4.14.35-1902.303.5.3.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kubeadm +2 | 1.17.9-1.0.1.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | olcnectl +6 | 1.1.2-6.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
Advisories 2
- RHSA-2020:2148 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 1.1.2 Service Mesh Proxy security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Mar 18, 2026
- ELSA-2020-5765 Important: Unbreakable Enterprise kernel-container kata-image kata-runtime kata kubernetes kubernetes istio olcne security update (Oracle Linux 7) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Jul 22, 2020