CVE-2022-29178

Workarounds

Prevent Cilium from running with group 1000 by modifying Cilium's DaemonSet to run with the following command:

      containers:
      - name: cilium-agent
        args:
        - -c
        - "groupdel cilium && cilium-agent --config-dir=/tmp/cilium/config-map"
        command:
        - bash

instead of

      containers:
      - name: cilium-agent
        args:
        - --config-dir=/tmp/cilium/config-map
        command:
        - cilium-agent

Acknowledgements

The Cilium community has worked together with members of Isovalent and Form 3 to prepare these mitigations. Special thanks to Daniel Iziourov and Daniel Teixeira for their cooperation.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Email us at [email protected]

Users with host file system access on a node and the privileges to run as group ID 1000 can gain access to the per node API of Cilium via Unix domain socket on the host where Cilium is running. If a malicious user is able to gain unprivileged access to a user corresponding to this group, then they can leverage this access to compromise the integrity as well as system availability on that host. Operating Systems that have unprivileged users not belonging the group ID 1000 are not affected by this vulnerability.

Best practices for managing the secure deployment of Kubernetes clusters will typically limit the ability for a malicious user to deploy pods with access to this group or to access the host filesystem, and limit user access to the nodes for users belonging to this group. These best practices include (but are not limited to) enforcing Admission Control policies to limit the configuration of Kubernetes Pod hostPath and SecurityContext fields.

CVE-2022-29178 has a CVSS score of 8.8 (High). The vector is requires local access, low privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (1.11.5, 1.10.11, 1.9.16); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

Cilium versions >=1.9.16, >=1.10.11, >=1.11.5 mitigate this issue by setting the default group to 0 (root).

1. What is CVE-2022-29178? CVE-2022-29178 is a high-severity security vulnerability in github.com/cilium/cilium (go), affecting versions >= 1.11.0, < 1.11.5. It is fixed in 1.11.5, 1.10.11, 1.9.16.
2. How severe is CVE-2022-29178? CVE-2022-29178 has a CVSS score of 8.8 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of github.com/cilium/cilium are affected by CVE-2022-29178? github.com/cilium/cilium (go) versions >= 1.11.0, < 1.11.5 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2022-29178? Yes. CVE-2022-29178 is fixed in 1.11.5, 1.10.11, 1.9.16. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2022-29178 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-29178 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2022-29178 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2022-29178?
   • Upgrade github.com/cilium/cilium to 1.11.5 or later
   • Upgrade github.com/cilium/cilium to 1.10.11 or later
   • Upgrade github.com/cilium/cilium to 1.9.16 or later

Other vulnerabilities in github.com/cilium/cilium