Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain valid digest response for URI-A
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DeliveryCraft HTTP request to protected URI-B
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ExploitAttach captured Authorization header with URI-A
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ExecutionServer validates hash against header URI
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ImpactAccess URI-B bypassing per-resource control
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A07:2025 - Authentication Failures
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Authentication mechanism validation
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Defense Evasion, Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires that the target device runs the arduino-esp32 WebServer library with Digest authentication enabled and configured for per-resource (per-URI) access control - the vulnerability only matters when different protected URIs are meant to have distinct authorization. The attacker must first obtain at least one valid Digest response computed for some URI in the realm (i.e. hold or capture credentials for one resource); a completely credential-less attacker cannot forge the response. Limiting factors: reachable HTTP interface, Digest (not Basic or unauthenticated) auth in use, and possession of one valid digest response; deployments using a single shared credential for all endpoints gain no additional access from the bypass and are effectively unaffected in practice. |
| Impact | The NVD vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N yields 7.5 (High), but the PR:N (unauthenticated) rating conflicts with the description: to produce a 'valid digest response' the attacker must already possess valid credentials for at least one protected URI, which is functionally a low-privilege authenticated position - this looks like per-resource privilege escalation, not fully unauthenticated access, so PR:L is more defensible (flagged for vendor verification). Corroborating signals are muted: EPSS is 0.04% (13th percentile), SSVC records Exploitation: none and Technical Impact: partial, and no POC or KEV listing exists - so this is a real but low-urgency issue rather than an imminent mass-exploitation threat. The one aggravating factor is SSVC Automatable: yes, meaning replay could be scripted at scale once an attacker has any foothold credential. On balance: legitimate to patch, but not an emergency for most deployments, and the confidentiality-only impact (C:H, I:N, A:N) likely understates real risk on devices where protected endpoints trigger physical actuation (potential integrity impact). |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who has been granted (or has sniffed) a valid Digest response for a low-sensitivity endpoint such as /status captures that Authorization header. They then send a request to a higher-value protected endpoint such as /admin or /gpio, reusing the same digest response but with the target URI on the request line. Because the server validates the hash against the header's URI field rather than the requested resource, the request is accepted, granting access the attacker was never authorized for; no public POC is currently identified but the technique is trivially scriptable. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 23, 2026
Digest authentication bypass in Espressif's arduino-esp32 WebServer (all versions prior to 3.3.8) lets an attacker who holds any single valid digest response replay it to reach a different protected endpoint, defeating per-resource access control. The flaw is CWE-287 (improper authentication) because the server trusts the URI value inside the client's Authorization header instead of binding the hash to the actually-requested resource. There is no public exploit identified at time of analysis, EPSS is very low (0.04%, 13th percentile), and CISA SSVC marks exploitation as none but automatable.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade the arduino-esp32 core to 3.3.8 or later and rebuild/reflash affected firmware, per advisory GHSA-28hv-fwm3-rpcq (https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/security/advisories/GHSA-28hv-fwm3-rpcq). Where immediate reflashing of fielded devices is impractical, compensating controls include: restricting network reachability of the device's WebServer to a trusted management VLAN or via firewall/ACL so digest responses cannot be captured or replayed by outside parties (trade-off: breaks any legitimate remote access); avoiding reliance on per-URI digest authorization for privilege separation and instead requiring the same credential for all protected endpoints so cross-URI replay grants nothing extra (trade-off: coarser access model); and placing a reverse proxy in front of the device that re-validates the request URI against the Authorization header URI before forwarding (trade-off: added component and latency on constrained deployments). If Digest auth is not required, disabling it or switching the endpoint to a properly URI-bound auth scheme also removes the exposure.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The affected component is the WebServer library shipped in the arduino-esp32 core, which targets ESP32, ESP32-S2/S3, ESP32-C3/C6 and ESP32-H2 microcontrollers (CPE cpe:2.3:a:espressif:arduino-esp32). HTTP Digest Access Authentication (RFC 2617/7616) requires the client to fold several fields - including the request URI - into an MD5/SHA response hash so that a captured response cannot be replayed against a different resource. Here the server recomputes and validates the hash using the URI string supplied in the client's Authorization header rather than the URI on the actual request line, so the cryptographic binding between the credential and the specific resource is broken. This is a classic CWE-287 improper-authentication defect where a security-relevant input is taken from an attacker-controlled field without cross-checking it against the trusted request context.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Network-reachable HTTP with low complexity, but PR:L because the attacker must already hold a valid digest response for one URI; impact is unauthorized resource access, primarily confidentiality.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
arduino-esp32 is an Arduino core for the ESP32, ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3, ESP32-C3, ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 microcontrollers. Prior to 3.3.8, the WebServer Digest authentication implementation in arduino-esp32 computes the authentication hash using the URI field from the client's Authorization header, without verifying that it matches the actual requested URI. This allows an attacker who possesses any valid digest response (computed for URI-A) to authenticate requests to a completely different protected URI (URI-B), bypassing per-resource access control. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.3.8.
Executive ViewAI
Espressif's arduino-esp32 WebServer (versions before 3.3.8) has an authentication bypass that allows attackers with a valid login to access multiple protected endpoints, defeating per-resource access control on IoT and embedded systems. This exposure could allow unauthorized manipulation of device functions across your deployed infrastructure. A vendor patch is immediately available and should be prioritized for deployment.
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Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
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EUVD-2026-29859
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
Exploit-DB