CVE-2026-53713

/// Technical description

Envoy Gateway is an open source project for managing Envoy Proxy as a standalone or Kubernetes-based application gateway. Prior to 1.7.4 and 1.8.1, to_absolute_normalized_path in internal/gatewayapi/luavalidator/security.lua does not collapse redundant separators before is_critical_path evaluates Lua submitted through EnvoyExtensionPolicy during default Strict validation. Linux resolves a double-slash absolute path as the corresponding single-slash path, but the validator does not match the redundant-separator form, allowing submitted Lua to read arbitrary files from the gateway controller pod. Exposed files can include Kubernetes service-account tokens, TLS certificates, and process environment data, and the disclosed credentials can provide access to sensitive Kubernetes API Server or Gateway xDS server information. This issue is fixed in versions 1.7.4 and 1.8.1.

/// Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

/// References