CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-25740

Unintended Proxy or Intermediary ('Confused Deputy')

Published: Sep 20, 2021 | Modified: Nov 21, 2024
CVSS 3.x
3.1
LOW
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
CVSS 2.x
3.5 LOW
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

A security issue was discovered with Kubernetes that could enable users to send network traffic to locations they would otherwise not have access to via a confused deputy attack.

Weakness

The product receives a request, message, or directive from an upstream component, but the product does not sufficiently preserve the original source of the request before forwarding the request to an external actor that is outside of the product’s control sphere. This causes the product to appear to be the source of the request, leading it to act as a proxy or other intermediary between the upstream component and the external actor.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Kubernetes Kubernetes - (including) - (including)
Kubernetes Ubuntu groovy *
Kubernetes Ubuntu hirsute *
Kubernetes Ubuntu impish *
Kubernetes Ubuntu kinetic *
Kubernetes Ubuntu lunar *
Kubernetes Ubuntu mantic *

Extended Description

If an attacker cannot directly contact a target, but the product has access to the target, then the attacker can send a request to the product and have it be forwarded to the target. The request would appear to be coming from the product’s system, not the attacker’s system. As a result, the attacker can bypass access controls (such as firewalls) or hide the source of malicious requests, since the requests would not be coming directly from the attacker. Since proxy functionality and message-forwarding often serve a legitimate purpose, this issue only becomes a vulnerability when:

Potential Mitigations

References