Open-Source Security Intelligence

Know every vulnerability
before it knows you.

DevGuard continuously monitors your dependencies and alerts you when CVEs like this one affect your stack — with real-time threat intelligence built for developers.

Search

CVE-2023-29193

HighCVSS 8.7 / 10
Published Apr 14, 2023·Last modified Apr 10, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

SpiceDB is an open source, Google Zanzibar-inspired, database system for creating and managing security-critical application permissions. The spicedb serve command contains a flag named --grpc-preshared-key which is used to protect the gRPC API from being accessed by unauthorized requests. The values of this flag are to be considered sensitive, secret data. The /debug/pprof/cmdline endpoint served by the metrics service (defaulting running on port 9090) reveals the command-line flags provided for debugging purposes. If a password is set via the --grpc-preshared-key then the key is revealed by this endpoint along with any other flags provided to the SpiceDB binary. This issue has been fixed in version 1.19.1.

Impact

All deployments abiding by the recommended best practices for production usage are NOT affected:

  • Authzed's SpiceDB Serverless
  • Authzed's SpiceDB Dedicated
  • SpiceDB Operator

Users configuring SpiceDB via environment variables are NOT affected.

Users MAY be affected if they expose their metrics port to an untrusted network and are configuring --grpc-preshared-key via command-line flag.

Patches

TODO

Workarounds

To workaround this issue you can do one of the following:

  • Configure the preshared key via an environment variable (e.g. SPICEDB_GRPC_PRESHARED_KEY=yoursecret spicedb serve)
  • Reconfigure the --metrics-addr flag to bind to a trusted network (e.g. --metrics-addr=localhost:9090)
  • Disable the metrics service via the flag (e.g. --metrics-enabled=false)
  • Adopt one of the recommended deployment models: Authzed's managed services or the SpiceDB Operator

References

Credit

We'd like to thank Amit Laish, a security researcher at GE Vernova for responsibly disclosing this vulnerability.

Risk Scores
Base Score
8.7

The vulnerability can be exploited over a local network, such as Wi-Fi. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker needs basic access or low-level privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability can affect other systems as well, not just the initial system. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data.

Threat Intelligence
8.0

Exploitation activity has been observed. Apply available patches or mitigations urgently.

EPSS
0.76%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

Scan your project

Continuously monitor your dependencies and get alerted when vulnerabilities like this one affect your stack.

Checkout DevGuard