CVE-2020-8554
Kubernetes man in the middle using LoadBalancer or ExternalIPs
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- kubernetes
Description
Kubernetes API server in all versions allow an attacker who is able to create a ClusterIP service and set the spec.externalIPs field, to intercept traffic to that IP address. Additionally, an attacker who is able to patch the status (which is considered a privileged operation and should not typically be granted to users) of a LoadBalancer service can set the status.loadBalancer.ingress.ip to similar effect.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| kubernetesCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium5.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 8.7% · top 4.8% of all CVEs (5 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.3.
Weakness
Affected products
- affected < *
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gok8s.io/kubernetesGHSA-j9wf-vvm6-4r9w (opens in a new tab)
What to do
Workaround: To restrict the use of external IPs we are providing an admission webhook container: k8s.gcr.io/multitenancy/externalip-webhook:v1.0.0. The source code and deployment instructions are published at https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/externalip-webhook. Alternatively, external IPs can be restricted using OPA Gatekeeper. A sample ConstraintTemplate and Constraint can be found here: https://github.com/open-policy-agent/gatekeeper-library/tree/master/library/general/externalip.
References (10)
- https://kubernetes.io/blog/2026/05/26/reconciling-unfixed-kubernetes-cves/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-security-announce/c/iZWsF9nbKE8 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/97076 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- [druid-commits] 20210201 [GitHub] [druid] jon-wei opened a new pull request #10826: Address CVE-2020-8570, suppress CVE-2020-8554 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- [druid-commits] 20210202 [GitHub] [druid] jon-wei opened a new pull request #10826: Address CVE-2020-8570, suppress CVE-2020-8554 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- [druid-commits] 20210203 [GitHub] [druid] jihoonson commented on pull request #10826: Address CVE-2020-8570, suppress CVE-2020-8554 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- [druid-commits] 20210203 [GitHub] [druid] jihoonson merged pull request #10826: Address CVE-2020-8570, suppress CVE-2020-8554 (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- https://www.oracle.com//security-alerts/cpujul2021.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-j9wf-vvm6-4r9w (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2020-8554)Record last updated .