EUVD-2026-53393
GHSA-6chj-7h9j-x3p6
Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Network-accessible with no auth or complexity; impact bounded to Low C/I because exploitation is confined to skip-auth-regex paths, not the full application surface.
Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).
CVSS VectorVendor: redhat
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
A flaw was found in openshift/oauth-proxy. On paths configured to bypass authentication (skip-auth-regex), the proxy forwards client-supplied identity headers (X-Forwarded-User, X-Forwarded-Email, X-Forwarded-Access-Token) to the upstream application without stripping them. An unauthenticated attacker can inject forged identity headers on whitelisted paths.
AnalysisAI
Header injection in openshift/oauth-proxy allows unauthenticated network attackers to impersonate arbitrary users on upstream applications by exploiting authentication-bypass paths. When skip-auth-regex rules are configured, the proxy forwards client-controlled identity headers (X-Forwarded-User, X-Forwarded-Email, X-Forwarded-Access-Token) to upstream services without stripping them, enabling forged identity claims. Affecting Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4, this vulnerability is classified under CWE-345 (Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity) with a CVSS 6.5 base score; no public exploit code or CISA KEV listing has been identified at time of analysis.
Technical ContextAI
The openshift/oauth-proxy is a reverse proxy component embedded in OpenShift Container Platform 4 deployments that enforces OAuth-based authentication in front of upstream applications. It supports a skip-auth-regex configuration that exempts specific URL paths from the authentication flow - typically used for health checks, public assets, or API endpoints that must be publicly accessible. The root cause (CWE-345: Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity) is that the proxy fails to sanitize or strip client-supplied HTTP headers (X-Forwarded-User, X-Forwarded-Email, X-Forwarded-Access-Token) before relaying requests on these exempted paths. Upstream applications that trust these forwarded headers as proxy-asserted identity signals are therefore vulnerable to impersonation. The affected CPE is cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_openshift_container_platform_4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*, indicating all 4.x releases are potentially in scope.
RemediationAI
No exact patched version has been confirmed in the available intelligence - the fix status should be verified directly against the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-49331 and the Bugzilla issue at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2483252. Until a patched release is confirmed and applied, operators should audit all skip-auth-regex rules and minimize the set of exempted paths to only those that are strictly necessary and that serve no identity-sensitive upstream functionality. As a compensating control, upstream applications should be hardened to never trust X-Forwarded-User, X-Forwarded-Email, or X-Forwarded-Access-Token headers originating from client-accessible paths - instead performing their own authentication or rejecting requests that arrive without a proxy-signed token. A network-layer control such as restricting access to skip-auth-regex paths via IP allowlist (if the use case permits) reduces the exploitable attack surface. Note that disabling skip-auth-regex entirely may break health check endpoints or public API paths and requires testing before deployment.
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Same technique Authentication Bypass
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