CVE-2021-20278: kiali Authentication Bypass by Spoofing
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2021-20278 is a medium (CVSS 6.5) Authentication Bypass by Spoofing vulnerability in kiali. EPSS estimates a 0.76% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 54.5% of scored vulnerabilities.
Timeline
- 28-05-2021PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 03-08-2024Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
An authentication bypass vulnerability was found in Kiali in versions before 1.31.0 when the authentication strategy `OpenID` is used. When RBAC is enabled, Kiali assumes that some of the token validation is handled by the underlying cluster. When OpenID `implicit flow` is used with RBAC turned off, this token validation doesn't occur, and this allows a malicious user to bypass the authentication.
CVSS metrics
3 scores · 2 sources · 2 versions- OSV · GoEcosystem advisory · calculated6.5MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS trend
Probability
0.76%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
55%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
0.00 pp
From 0.76% on 19-09-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogsNot in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root cause- CWE-290Authentication Bypass by SpoofingThis attack-focused weakness is caused by incorrectly implemented authentication schemes that are subject to spoofing attacks.
- CWE-287Improper AuthenticationWhen an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.
Affected systems
Github.com/kiali1 product
- kiali< 1.31.0
Kiali1 product
- kiali< 1.31.0
2 vendors · 2 products
References
5 links- bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1937171X Refsource MISCWEBIssue TrackingPatchThird Party Advisory
