CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-20278 — An authentication bypass vulnerability was found in Kiali in versions before 1.31.0 when the authentication strategy `OpenID` is used

Medium CVSS 6.5

An authentication bypass vulnerability was found in Kiali in versions before 1.31.0 when the authentication strategy `OpenID` is used. When RBAC is enabled, Kiali assumes that some of the token validation is handled by the underlying cluster. When OpenID `implicit flow` is used with RBAC turned off, this token validation doesn't occur, and this allows a malicious user to bypass the authentication.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2021-05-28
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-290, CWE-287

Affected products

  • kiali / kiali

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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