CVE-2020-16844
No exploitation reported by the sources we read.
- Published2020-10-01
- Fixed in1.6.8 · 1.5.9
Am I affected?
Debian, Ubuntu or Red Hat sometimes backport a fix without changing the upstream version number: such a version reads « to verify », never « affected ».With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.
Description
In Istio 1.5.0 though 1.5.8 and Istio 1.6.0 through 1.6.7, when users specify an AuthorizationPolicy resource with DENY actions using wildcard suffixes (e.g. *-some-suffix) for source principals or namespace fields, callers will never be denied access, bypassing the intended policy.
Timeline
dates in UTC- 2020-10-0117:15CVE publishedNVD
Observed activity
isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTCBlock these indicators
- Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-16844?format=txt
- CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-16844?format=csv
- TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
- The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.
Versions per branch
OSV · NVD| Branch | Affected | Fixed in | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.6 | ≥ 1.6.0, < 1.6.8 | 1.6.8 | OSV |
| 1.5 | ≥ 1.5.0, < 1.5.9 | 1.5.9 | OSV |
| Branch | Affected | Fixed in | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 | ≥ 1.5.0, ≤ 1.5.8 | no fix published | NVD |
| 1.6 | ≥ 1.6.0, ≤ 1.6.7 | no fix published | NVD |
as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.
Distribution builds and vendor advisories
Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.
version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.
Vendor advisories
istio: incorrect translation of DENY policy for TCP service
Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 1.1 security update
Fix
- Update istio.io/istio to 1.6.8 · 1.5.9
- Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:3425 · 10 productsThe OpenShift Service Mesh release notes provide information on the features and known issues: https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/latest/service_mesh/servicemesh-release-notes.html
- Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:3425 · 10 productsIn regards to an AuthorizationPolicy for a TCP service, if using a DENY rule in the source principal (or namespace field) such as: apiVersion: security.istio.io/v1beta1 kind: AuthorizationPolicy ... spec: action: DENY rules: - from: - source: princip…
Advisories and patches
- github.comVendor Advisory
- istio.ioMitigation · Vendor Advisory
Detection
- Nuclei template
- none so far ProjectDiscovery
- Exploit-DB
- no entry Exploit-DB
- Proof-of-concept repositories
- none listed PoC-in-GitHub
Sources
- NVDCVSS 3.16.8read 2026-10-23
- NVDCVSS 2.04.9read 2026-10-23
- FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.1 %2026-10-23
- OSVaffected packages—
Technical details
- CVSS v3 Vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- Published
- 2020-10-01
- Last Modified
- 2026-06-17
- NVD status
- Modified
Frequently asked questions
What is CVE-2020-16844?
Is CVE-2020-16844 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-16844?
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Related vulnerabilities
Same product first, then the same vendor advisory and the same publication week.