Envoy is a cloud-native high-performance edge/middle/service proxy. In Envoy version 1.17.0 an attacker can bypass authentication by presenting a JWT token with an issuer that is not in the provider list when Envoy's JWT Authentication filter is configured with the allow_missing requirement under requires_any due to a mistake in implementation. Envoy's JWT Authentication filter can be configured with the allow_missing requirement that will be satisfied if JWT is missing (JwtMissed error) and fail if JWT is presented or invalid. Due to a mistake in implementation, a JwtUnknownIssuer error was mistakenly converted to JwtMissed when requires_any was configured. So if allow_missing was configured under requires_any, an attacker can bypass authentication by presenting a JWT token with an issuer that is not in the provider list. Integrity may be impacted depending on configuration if the JWT token is used to protect against writes or modifications. This regression was introduced on 2020/11/12 in PR 13839 which fixed handling allow_missing under RequiresAny in a JwtRequirement (see issue 13458). The AnyVerifier aggregates the children verifiers' results into a final status where JwtMissing is the default error. However, a JwtUnknownIssuer was mistakenly treated the same as a JwtMissing error and the resulting final aggregation was the default JwtMissing. As a result, allow_missing would allow a JWT token with an unknown issuer status. This is fixed in version 1.17.1 by PR 15194. The fix works by preferring JwtUnknownIssuer over a JwtMissing error, fixing the accidental conversion and bypass with allow_missing. A user could detect whether a bypass occurred if they have Envoy logs enabled with debug verbosity. Users can enable component level debug logs for JWT. The JWT filter logs will indicate that there is a request with a JWT token and a failure that the JWT token is missing.
CVE-2021-21378
This high-severity CVE scores 8.2 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.4%, top 38% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 8.2
- EG Score
- 8.2(medium)
- EPSS
- 74.6%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
March 11, 2021
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (6)
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/commit/ea39e3cba652bcc4b11bb0d5c62b017e584d2e5a
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/pull/15194
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/security/advisories/GHSA-4996-m8hf-hj27
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/commit/ea39e3cba652bcc4b11bb0d5c62b017e584d2e5a
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/pull/15194
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/security/advisories/GHSA-4996-m8hf-hj27
Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 45× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
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