cilium-cli disables etcd authorization for clustermesh clusters

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2023-28114: 0.19% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 8.89 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact cilium-cli, when used to configure cluster mesh functionality, can remove the enforcement of user permissions on the etcd store used to mirror local cluster information to remote clusters. Due to an incorrect mount point specification, the settings specified by the initContainer that configures etcd users and their permissions are overwritten when using cilium-cli to configure a cluster mesh. An attacker who has already gained access to a valid key and certificate for an etcd cluster compromised in this manner could then modify state in that etcd cluster. Patches This issue is patched in cilium-cli 0.13.2 All previous versions of cilium-cli are affected. Users who have set up cluster meshes using the Cilium Helm chart are not affected. Workarounds Use Cilium's Helm charts to create your cluster instead. Acknowledgements The Cilium community has worked together with members of Isovalent to prepare these mitigations. Special thanks to Marco Iorio for investigating and fixing the…

Published by the source

21 Mar 2023, 22:30 UTC

Last modified by the source

22 Mar 2023, 21:49 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 14:55 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-6f27-3p6c-p5jc

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-28114

Advisory: `cilium-cli` disables etcd authorization for clustermesh clusters
IDs: CVE-2023-28114, GHSA-6f27-3p6c-p5jc
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-28114 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:55 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 4.8)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/cilium/cilium-cli 0.13.2. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/cilium/cilium-cli: affected < 0.13.2; fixed in 0.13.2

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/cilium/cilium-cli: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/cilium/cilium-cli.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-6f27-3p6c-p5jc (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-6f27-3p6c-p5jc lists affected ranges: Go github.com/cilium/cilium-cli >=0 <0.13.2)

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