CVE-2023-27593 MEDIUM

CVE-2023-27593: cilium-agent container can access the host via `hostPath` mount

Vendor Cilium
Product cilium
Weakness CWE-276
Published March 17, 2023
Last update February 25, 2025

CVSS base score

4.4/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required High
User interaction None
Confidentiality None
Integrity None

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution with an eBPF-based dataplane. Prior to versions 1.11.15, 1.12.8, and 1.13.1, an attacker with access to a Cilium agent pod can write to `/opt/cni/bin` due to a `hostPath` mount of that directory in the agent pod. By replacing the CNI binary with their own malicious binary and waiting for the creation of a new pod on the node, the attacker can gain access to the underlying node. The issue has been fixed and the fix is available on versions 1.11.15, 1.12.8, and 1.13.1. Some workarounds are available. Kubernetes RBAC should be used to deny users and service accounts `exec` access to Cilium agent pods. In cases where a user requires `exec` access to Cilium agent pods, but should not have access to the underlying node, no workaround is possible.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

March 17, 2023 CVE published
February 25, 2025 Record updated