traefik: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
CVE-2026-88877 is a critical-severity authorization bypass through user-controlled key vulnerability in traefik, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an unauthenticated attacker, without any action from a user. Affected traefik versions: 3.7.0 through 3.7.13. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.65% chance of exploitation within 30 days, higher than 52% of scored CVEs.
Critical severity: a successful attack would have severe impact.
What to do
- Check which version of traefik you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
- Read the advisory on github.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
- Until you can update, restrict network access to the affected service so it is not reachable from untrusted networks.
Affected products and versions
Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. 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
- HighData or code can be modified at will.
- Availability
- HighThe component can be taken down completely.
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA (vulncheck.com).
| Scoring system | Score | Severity | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 4.0 | 9.3 | Critical | CNA (vulncheck.com) |
| CVSS 3.1 | 9.8 | Critical | CNA (vulncheck.com) |
Official description
Traefik is a HTTP reverse proxy and load balancer. In versions >= v3.7.0 and <= v3.7.11, the Kubernetes ingress-nginx provider mishandles Ingresses that carry both an authentication annotation and the nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/from-to-www-redirect annotation. For such Ingresses the provider creates an additional 'sibling' router that matches on the host alone, carries only the RedirectRegex middleware, and still points at the parent router's protected backend service. Because RedirectRegex is not a terminal handler, a request its pattern does not match is forwarded to the backend, and because the redirect pattern only accepts a numeric port while Traefik's host matcher canonicalizes the authority via net.SplitHostPort, a request with a non-numeric or empty port (for example 'Host: www.example.com:x') selects the sibling router, misses the redirect, and is proxied to the protected backend with none of the Ingress's annotation-derived middlewares applied. This discards not only authentication (e.g. BasicAuth) but every annotation-derived middleware, including source-IP allowlisting. Traefik v2 and v3 releases before v3.7.0 are not affected. The issue is fixed in v3.7.12.
Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.
The underlying weakness: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
The system's authorization functionality does not prevent one user from gaining access to another user's data or record by modifying the key value identifying the data.
How developers prevent this class of flaw
- For each and every data access, ensure that the user has sufficient privilege to access the record that is being requested.
- Make sure that the key that is used in the lookup of a specific user's record is not controllable externally by the user or that any tampering can be detected.
- Use encryption in order to make it more difficult to guess other legitimate values of the key or associate a digital signature with the key so that the server can verify that there has been no tampering.
More Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerabilities (CWE-639)
Timeline
- CVE record published.
- CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: yes, technical impact: total).
- Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).
References
Third-party and government advisories
Other vulnerabilities in traefik
- 8.7 High severity
- 8.7 High severity
- 9.3 Critical severity
- 8.7 High severity
- 8.7 High severity
- 8.7 High severity
Recent Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerabilities
- 7.7 High severity
- 8.1 High severity
- 8.1 High severity
- 7.5 High severity
- 9.0 Critical severity
- 7.4 High severity
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