A vulnerability in the xDS RBAC HTTP filter implementation in grpc-go allows remote attackers to bypass authorization policies (specifically DENY rules) by using mixed-case or canonical-case header matchers (e.g., X-Role instead of x-role). Additionally, the safety guards introduced by gRFC A41 to block grpc- prefixed headers can be evaded via variations in casing (e.g., Grpc-Status).
A vulnerability exists in gRPC-Go servers configured with xds.NewGRPCServer() where a crafted request missing both :authority and Host headers can cause a server panic, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS). Servers built with xds.NewGRPCServer install an xDS routing interceptor on every RPC. This interceptor looks up the request’s :authority header to pick a virtual host. The HTTP/2 server transport previously accepted requests that had neither :authority nor Host. When …
An unauthenticated remote attacker can initiate a gRPC stream and purposefully fragment their payload into millions of tiny (e.g., 1-byte) HTTP/2 DATA frames. Even if the total payload volume falls within the configured connection and stream flow-control windows, each independent fragment incurs memory overhead due to internal tracking structures and queue allocation. Repeated fragmentation massively inflates the heap space consumed by the stream. An attacker multiplexing multiple concurrent streams can …
Multiple security vulnerabilities have been identified and addressed in grpc-go affecting the xDS RBAC authorization engine (internal/xds/rbac) and the HTTP/2 transport server implementation (internal/transport). These vulnerabilities could result in: Authorization Bypass (Fail-Open) when translating xDS RBAC policies containing Metadata or RequestedServerName fields. Denial of Service (High CPU Consumption) due to an HTTP/2 Rapid Reset mitigation bypass during client-initiated stream resets. Denial of Service (Server Panic) when parsing crafted xDS RBAC …
What kind of vulnerability is it? Who is impacted? It is an Authorization Bypass resulting from Improper Input Validation of the HTTP/2 :path pseudo-header. The gRPC-Go server was too lenient in its routing logic, accepting requests where the :path omitted the mandatory leading slash (e.g., Service/Method instead of /Service/Method). While the server successfully routed these requests to the correct handler, authorization interceptors (including the official grpc/authz package) evaluated the raw, …
This issue represents a potential PII concern. If applications were printing or logging a context containing gRPC metadata, the affected versions will contain all the metadata, which may include private information.
In affected releases of gRPC-Go, it is possible for an attacker to send HTTP/2 requests, cancel them, and send subsequent requests, which is valid by the HTTP/2 protocol, but would cause the gRPC-Go server to launch more concurrent method handlers than the configured maximum stream limit.
This advisory duplicates another.
HTTP/2 Rapid reset attack The HTTP/2 protocol allows clients to indicate to the server that a previous stream should be canceled by sending a RST_STREAM frame. The protocol does not require the client and server to coordinate the cancellation in any way, the client may do it unilaterally. The client may also assume that the cancellation will take effect immediately when the server receives the RST_STREAM frame, before any other …