CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-40895NVD status: Modified

follow-redirects: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-40895 is a high-severity exposure of sensitive information to an unauthorized actor vulnerability in follow-redirects, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected follow-redirects versions: < 1.16.0. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.49% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of follow-redirects you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
  2. Read the advisory on github.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
  3. Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
Follow-redirectsfollow-redirects< 1.16.0Not stated
Red HatCryostat 4 on RHEL 9Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatCluster Observability Operator 1.5.0Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red Hatmulticluster engine for Kubernetes 2.1Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red Hatmulticluster engine for Kubernetes 2.11Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red Hatmulticluster engine for Kubernetes 2.6Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red Hatmulticluster engine for Kubernetes 2.8Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red Hatmulticluster engine for Kubernetes 2.9Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatNetwork Observability (NETOBSERV) 1.11.0Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.16Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4.9Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes 4.10Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Developer Hub 1.8Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Developer Hub 1.9Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Discovery 2Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Migration Toolkit 1.8Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8.1Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift AI 2.25Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift AI 3.3Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18Not specified in the recordNot stated
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19Not specified in the recordNot stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE; 35 further products are omitted here. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
NoneNo account or login is needed.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
NoneNothing can be modified.
Availability
NoneAvailability is not affected.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N. Scored by NVD.

Scoring systemScoreSeverityScored by
CVSS 4.06.9MediumCNA (github.com)
CVSS 3.17.5HighNVD
CVSS 3.17.5HighCNA

Official description

follow-redirects is an open source, drop-in replacement for Node's `http` and `https` modules that automatically follows redirects. Prior to 1.16.0, when an HTTP request follows a cross-domain redirect (301/302/307/308), follow-redirects only strips authorization, proxy-authorization, and cookie headers (matched by regex at index.js). Any custom authentication header (e.g., X-API-Key, X-Auth-Token, Api-Key, Token) is forwarded verbatim to the redirect target. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.16.0.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Compartmentalize the system to have safe areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

More Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerabilities (CWE-200)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: partial).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in follow-redirects

All follow-redirects vulnerabilities

Recent Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerabilities

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