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AsyncHttpClient EUVDEUVD-2026-94638

| CVE-2026-107279 HIGH
Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm (CWE-303)
2026-10-07 GitHub_M
8.8
CVSS 4.0 · Vendor: GitHub_M
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Lure AHC client to attacker-controlled server
  2. Exploit
    Return Digest challenge offering only qop=auth-int
  3. Execution
    Client skips rspauth mutual verification
  4. Impact
    Rogue server accepted as authenticated peer

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A07:2025 - Authentication Failures
ASVS 5.0
V6 - Authentication Authentication algorithm review
Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires that the victim Java application uses AsyncHttpClient's Digest authentication (a Realm configured with credentials) and relies on mutual authentication, AND that the peer/server presents a Digest challenge advertising qop="auth-int" as its only quality-of-protection option. The flaw does NOT trigger when the server offers 'auth' or 'auth,auth-int', because AHC prefers 'auth' and verifies its rspauth. The attacker must be able to serve or MITM the HTTP response seen by the client (a rogue server the client connects to, or on-path interception rewriting WWW-Authenticate). Key limiting factors: Digest mutual authentication is an uncommon deployment choice and an auth-int-only challenge is atypical of legitimate servers; no user interaction and no attacker credentials are needed. Affected in 3.0.12; fixed in 3.0.13.

Impact

The input CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N, score 8.8) describes a network-reachable, unauthenticated, no-interaction flaw whose primary impact is integrity (VI:H) with limited confidentiality exposure (VC:L) and no availability impact - consistent with server impersonation rather than data theft, which makes the 'Information Disclosure' tag a weak fit. No EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no public exploit were provided; the only public code is the upstream fix commit, so exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' No SSVC decision data was supplied. These signals conflict with the headline severity: the raw score implies easy remote compromise, but real-world risk is gated by an uncommon precondition - the victim application must use AHC Digest mutual authentication AND the peer must advertise qop=auth-int as its only option (an 'auth,auth-int' challenge is NOT affected because 'auth' is preferred and its rspauth is verified). The attacker is a rogue or MITM-positioned server, not an unprivileged user attacking a listening service. Net: a genuine but conditional authentication-bypass/integrity issue - patch promptly where AHC Digest mutual auth is in use, but absent EPSS/KEV/POC evidence it is not a mass-exploitable, drop-everything vulnerability.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A Java application using AsyncHttpClient 3.0.12 connects to an endpoint with Digest mutual authentication configured. An attacker operating that endpoint (or MITM-rewriting the challenge) returns a Digest WWW-Authenticate header offering only qop=auth-int; AHC computes no expected rspauth, treats the result as unverifiable-but-nonfatal, and accepts an invalid rspauth, so the attacker is trusted as the authenticated server without knowing the shared secret. No public exploit code is identified - only the upstream fix commit is published.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.4% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 07, 2026

Digest mutual-authentication bypass in AsyncHttpClient (AHC) 3.0.12 allows a rogue or on-path peer to be accepted as the authenticated server: when a Digest challenge advertises qop="auth-int" as the only supported quality-of-protection, the client negotiates it but cannot compute the expected rspauth, treats that as unverifiable-but-nonfatal, and accepts a response whose rspauth value is invalid. The flaw is network-reachable, unauthenticated and requires no user interaction (CVSS 4.0 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N, 8.8), with the primary impact on integrity (VI:H) consistent with server impersonation rather than the data theft implied by the 'Information Disclosure' tag. It only affects applications that use AHC's Digest Realm with mutual authentication and connect to a peer offering an auth-int-only challenge; deployments where the server offers 'auth' or 'auth,auth-int' are unaffected because AHC prefers and verifies 'auth'. No public exploit code and no confirmed active exploitation were identified at time of analysis; the vendor-released patch is version 3.0.13.

RemediationAI

Upgrade AsyncHttpClient to version 3.0.13, which is the vendor-released patch; it stops negotiating qop=auth-int at all, so an auth-int-only challenge is answered with HTTP 401 instead of a silently unverified exchange (see GHSA-qhv6-3pmh-95q4 and the 3.0.13 release tag). If immediate upgrade is not possible, ensure the peers your client trusts never advertise an auth-int-only Digest challenge - an 'auth' or 'auth,auth-int' challenge is safe because AHC prefers and verifies 'auth' - and do not treat Digest mutual authentication as a transport-security control: terminate requests over TLS with strict server certificate validation (or certificate pinning where feasible) so that a rogue server or on-path attacker able to rewrite WWW-Authenticate cannot present an auth-int-only challenge in the first place. The trade-off to accept with the 3.0.13 fix is interoperability: a legitimate server that supports only qop=auth-int can no longer be mutually authenticated against, so inventory internal services advertising auth-int-only before rolling the upgrade out.

Affected VersionsENISA

async-http-client = 3.0.12

Affected Packages

euvd async_http_client no fix

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

AHC is a Java library for asynchronous HTTP request execution, and the affected code path is its HTTP Digest authentication implementation (RFC 7616). Digest's qop=auth-int quality-of-protection requires the server's rspauth value to be computed over the response entity-body (A2 = ":" request-uri ":" H(entity-body)), but AHC processes the Authentication-Info header, and therefore AuthenticatorUtils.computeExpectedRspAuth, before the response body has been read. For auth-int the method returns no expected value, and the Interceptors layer classified that outcome as 'unverifiable but nonfatal', delivering the response instead of aborting - so a peer that does not know the shared secret could be accepted as the authenticated server. The root cause class is CWE-303 (Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm): the protocol's mutual-authentication check was silently downgraded to a no-op rather than being enforced or the mode refused. The upstream fix removes auth-int from the negotiated qop list entirely, with the explicit rationale that letting the peer choose a mode whose rspauth cannot be verified hands the attacker a one-word switch to disable mutual authentication; the accompanying tests assert that an auth-int-only challenge is no longer answered (HTTP 401) while 'auth,auth-int' still negotiates and verifies 'auth'. Note the accepted interoperability cost: a legitimately conformant server that offers only auth-int can no longer be mutually authenticated against.

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Severity by source

Vendor (GitHub_M) PRIMARY 8.8 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
vuln.today AI 8.2 HIGH

Attacker is an unauthenticated rogue/MITM server (PR:N) reachable over the network (AV:N); impact is server impersonation defeating mutual auth, so I:H with limited C:L and no availability impact.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Red Hat 8.2 HIGH

Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).

CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Vulnerable system: Confidentiality
Low
Vulnerable system: Integrity
High
Vulnerable system: Availability
None
Subsequent system: Confidentiality
None
Subsequent system: Integrity
None
Subsequent system: Availability
None

DescriptionCVE.org

The AsyncHttpClient (AHC) library allows Java applications to easily execute HTTP requests and asynchronously process HTTP responses. In 3.0.12, a peer offering only Digest qop=auth-int causes mutual-authentication verification to be skipped. AuthenticatorUtils.computeExpectedRspAuth returns no expected value for auth-int, and Interceptors treats that result as unverifiable but nonfatal, so a response with an invalid rspauth value is accepted. A peer that does not know the shared secret can therefore be accepted as the authenticated server. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.13.

Technical POC Analysis

CWE-303 (Incorrect Implementation of Authentication Algorithm), with the advisory also tagging CWE-757 (algorithm downgrade during negotiation).

Full technical POC analysis - root cause, step-by-step exploitation and patch breakdown - is part of the Pro and Business plans.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

AsyncHttpClient 3.0.12, a widely embedded Java HTTP client library, contains a mutual-authentication bypass that allows a rogue or on-path network peer to be accepted as the trusted server by any application configured to use its Digest Realm with mutual authentication against a peer that offers an auth-int-only challenge. The failure undermines the integrity of server-to-server communications, meaning affected integrations may silently transact with an impersonated endpoint rather than the intended service. Leadership should note that no vendor-released patch is available and that the exposure is limited to a specific Digest configuration, so rapid identification of affected applications and coordination with the teams operating their peer servers is the primary path to risk reduction.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: reconfigure peer servers to advertise qop='auth' or 'auth,auth-int' (AHC prefers and verifies 'auth', which is unaffected), disable the mutual-authentication requirement in AHC Digest Realm configurations, substitute certificate-bound server verification, and restrict network access to affected peers to reduce the on-path/rogue-peer attack surface.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.4%
Top 73% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
popular but non-dominant Java async HTTP client library
Data Quality
7 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment Vendor GitHub VulDB

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.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.4%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

44
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +44
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

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