Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2026-49445 affects Cilium clusters using L7 functionality. A locally present attacker on a cluster node could reach Envoy’s admin socket because it is world-accessible, potentially exposing TLS secrets, disrupting traffic, or terminating Envoy. The vendor lists fixed versions for three maintained branches.
Executive priority
Treat this as urgent for Cilium-based production clusters using L7 policy or observability. The main business risks are sensitive TLS material exposure and disruption of cluster traffic. Prioritize patching exposed branches and validating whether L7 Envoy is active.
Technical view
Before Cilium 1.17.14, 1.18.8, and 1.19.2, embedded or standalone Envoy creates admin.sock with overly permissive access when L7 functionality is enabled. The issue is CWE-732 and scores CVSS 9.2 with local attack vector, no privileges, changed scope, high confidentiality impact, and high availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in Kubernetes environments running Cilium versions below 1.17.14, 1.18.8, or 1.19.2 where Cilium L7 functionality and Envoy are enabled. The described attacker position is local access on cluster nodes; the bundle does not prove remote network exploitability.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not indicate CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. Practical risk depends on whether an attacker can gain local node access and reach the world-accessible Envoy admin socket. Impact can include secret exposure and cluster traffic disruption.
Researcher notes
The strongest evidence comes from the CVE record and Cilium advisory. The bundle identifies affected branches, fixed releases, CWE-732, and CVSS details. It does not include evidence of exploitation in the wild, broader affected products, or safe compensating controls beyond upgrading and consulting vendor guidance.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade Cilium 1.17 deployments to 1.17.14 or later.
- Upgrade Cilium 1.18 deployments to 1.18.8 or later.
- Upgrade Cilium 1.19 deployments to 1.19.2 or later.
- Review the GitHub advisory for branch-specific vendor guidance.
- Reduce unnecessary local access to cluster nodes while upgrading.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Cilium versions across all clusters and node pools.
- Confirm whether Cilium L7 functionality is enabled.
- Verify Envoy mode and admin socket exposure on cluster nodes.
- Confirm patched clusters run 1.17.14, 1.18.8, 1.19.2, or later.
- Review recent Envoy restarts or unexplained traffic disruption.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-732: Authorization and privilege behavior lookup
Authorization weaknesses can support privilege escalation and valid-account review, depending on exploit path. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-49445 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.2 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H2.56GitHub_MVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
9.2CriticalVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/cilium/cilium/security/advisories/GHSA-3fcv-jvfp-m4q9CVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/cilium/cilium/pull/44512CVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/cilium/cilium/commit/7bfbdd5c1be83d6c9ba3e089b4c804b6603505b6CVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.17.14CVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.18.8CVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/cilium/cilium/releases/tag/v1.19.2CVE reference, GitHub_M · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.