CVE-2025-24030: Envoyproxy Gateway Path Traversal Bug

CVE-2025-24030 Overview

CVE-2025-24030 is a path traversal vulnerability in Envoy Gateway, an open source project for managing Envoy Proxy as a standalone or Kubernetes-based application gateway. A user with access to the Kubernetes cluster can leverage path traversal to reach the Envoy Admin interface on proxies managed by Envoy Gateway. The admin interface lets an attacker terminate the Envoy process and extract Envoy configuration, which may contain confidential data. All versions prior to 1.2.6 are affected. The maintainers released version 1.2.6 to remediate the issue.

Critical Impact
An adjacent network attacker with Kubernetes cluster access can disrupt Envoy proxy availability and exfiltrate sensitive proxy configuration through the exposed admin interface.

Affected Products

Envoy Gateway versions prior to 1.2.6
Envoy Proxy instances managed by vulnerable Envoy Gateway deployments
Kubernetes clusters running Envoy Gateway as ingress or application gateway

Discovery Timeline

2025-01-23 - CVE-2025-24030 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-24030

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability stems from improper handling of request paths between the Envoy proxy data plane and its administrative interface. Envoy Gateway deploys Envoy proxies that expose the admin interface internally, normally restricted to operational endpoints such as Prometheus statistics. The flaw allows a user inside the cluster to send crafted requests that traverse path boundaries and reach unrestricted admin endpoints. CWE-419 (Unprotected Primary Channel) describes this exposure of an administrative channel without sufficient access controls.

Root Cause

The Envoy Gateway bootstrap configuration did not strictly limit access to the admin interface. While operators expected only the /stats/prometheus endpoint to be reachable, the routing logic permitted path traversal sequences that resolved to other admin handlers. The admin interface exposes powerful endpoints, including /quitquitquit to terminate the process and /config_dump to dump full runtime configuration.

Attack Vector

An attacker requires adjacent network access to the Envoy proxy within the Kubernetes cluster, with no authentication or user interaction needed. By issuing HTTP requests with path traversal payloads to the proxy's listener, the attacker reaches admin endpoints that should be unreachable. From there, the attacker can call /quitquitquit to cause denial of service or /config_dump to retrieve secrets, TLS material references, upstream cluster definitions, and routing rules embedded in the Envoy configuration.

No proof-of-concept code has been published. Technical details of the affected admin endpoints are documented in the Envoy Admin Operations Documentation and the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-j777-63hf-hx76.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-24030

Indicators of Compromise

HTTP requests to Envoy proxy pods containing path traversal sequences such as ..%2F, ../, or encoded variants targeting admin paths
Unexpected access to admin endpoints including /config_dump, /clusters, /listeners, /quitquitquit, and /healthcheck/fail
Sudden termination or restart of Envoy proxy pods without a corresponding deployment change
Outbound or in-cluster requests originating from workloads that do not normally communicate with gateway pods

Detection Strategies

Inspect Envoy access logs for request paths containing traversal patterns or references to admin handlers
Correlate Kubernetes pod restart events on Envoy proxy workloads with preceding HTTP traffic from in-cluster sources
Audit RBAC and NetworkPolicy resources to identify which workloads can reach Envoy proxy admin ports
Monitor the running Envoy Gateway version against the fixed release 1.2.6

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward Envoy access logs and Kubernetes audit logs to a centralized SIEM for query and alerting
Alert on any successful HTTP response to admin endpoints originating from pod networks
Track configuration drift on the EnvoyProxy custom resource to detect tampering with bootstrap patches

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-24030

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Envoy Gateway to version 1.2.6 or later across all clusters
Inventory all Envoy Gateway deployments and confirm the running image digest matches the patched release
Restrict pod-to-pod traffic to Envoy proxy admin ports using Kubernetes NetworkPolicy
Rotate secrets and credentials that may have been exposed in Envoy configuration if compromise is suspected

Patch Information

The fix is delivered in Envoy Gateway version 1.2.6. The upstream remediation is available in commit 3eb3301ab3dbf12b201b47bdb6074d1233be07bd. Operators should review the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-j777-63hf-hx76 for full release notes.

Workarounds

Apply a bootstrap config patch through the EnvoyProxy API that restricts the admin listener to the Prometheus stats endpoint only
Limit cluster access using Kubernetes RBAC so that only required service accounts can reach gateway-managed pods
Place gateway pods in a dedicated namespace with a default-deny NetworkPolicy and explicit allow rules
Follow the hardening recommendations in the Envoy Best Practices Guide

bash

# Configuration example: restrict admin interface via EnvoyProxy bootstrap patch
# Apply only after reviewing the official advisory and your cluster topology
kubectl get envoyproxy -A
kubectl patch envoyproxy <name> -n <namespace> --type=merge -p '{
  "spec": {
    "bootstrap": {
      "type": "JSONPatch",
      "value": "see GHSA-j777-63hf-hx76 for the full patch restricting admin to /stats/prometheus"
    }
  }
}'