NULL pointer dereference in Envoyproxy Envoy

CVE-2026-48521

Envoy is an open source edge and service proxy designed for cloud-native applications. Prior to 1.36.10, 1.37.6, 1.38.4, and 1.39.1, Envoy's ProdClusterManagerFactory::allocateConnPool dereferences transport_socket_options while selecting an HTTP/3 connection pool without first checking whether the pointer is null. LoadBalancerContext implementations used by synthetic, mirror, health-check, and async-client calls can return no transport-socket options. With auto_config and HTTP/3 enabled, routine traffic reaching one of those contexts can crash an Envoy worker. The relevant scope boundary is that the affected branch requires HTTP/3 in the protocol set and a context that supplies no transport-socket options. This issue is fixed in versions 1.36.10, 1.37.6, 1.38.4, and 1.39.1.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.007 (54.6th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 55th percentile — 54.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-48521: held from 0.007 to 0.007.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.007 · newest: 0.007 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • Envoyproxy Envoy — versions < 1.36.10, >= 1.37.0, < 1.37.6, >= 1.38.0, < 1.38.4

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-48521?
CVE-2026-48521 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Envoyproxy Envoy, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2026-09-21.
How severe is CVE-2026-48521?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.