CVE-2026-33495

March 26, 2026, 6:16 p.m.

6.5
Medium

Description

ORY Oathkeeper is an Identity & Access Proxy (IAP) and Access Control Decision API that authorizes HTTP requests based on sets of Access Rules. Ory Oathkeeper is often deployed behind other components like CDNs, WAFs, or reverse proxies. Depending on the setup, another component might forward the request to the Oathkeeper proxy with a different protocol (http vs. https) than the original request. In order to properly match the request against the configured rules, Oathkeeper considers the `X-Forwarded-Proto` header when evaluating rules. The configuration option `serve.proxy.trust_forwarded_headers` (defaults to false) governs whether this and other `X-Forwarded-*` headers should be trusted. Prior to version 26.2.0, Oathkeeper did not properly respect this configuration, and would always consider the `X-Forwarded-Proto` header. In order for an attacker to abuse this, an installation of Ory Oathkeeper needs to have distinct rules for HTTP and HTTPS requests. Also, the attacker needs to be able to trigger one but not the other rule. In this scenario, the attacker can send the same request but with the `X-Forwarded-Proto` header in order to trigger the other rule. We do not expect many configurations to meet these preconditions. Version 26.2.0 contains a patch. Ory Oathkeeper will correctly respect the `serve.proxy.trust_forwarded_headers` configuration going forward, thereby eliminating the attack scenario. We recommend upgrading to a fixed version even if the preconditions are not met. As an additional mitigation, it is generally recommended to drop any unexpected headers as early as possible when a request is handled, e.g. in the WAF.

Product(s) Impacted

Vendor Product Versions
Ory
  • Oathkeeper
  • <26.2.0

Weaknesses

Common security weaknesses mapped to this vulnerability.

CWE-862
Missing Authorization
The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

*CPE(s)

Affected systems and software identified for this CVE.

Type Vendor Product Version Update Edition Language Software Edition Target Software Target Hardware Other Information
a ory oathkeeper <26.2.0 / / / / / / /

CVSS Score

6.5 / 10

CVSS Data - 3.1

  • Attack Vector: NETWORK
  • Attack Complexity: LOW
  • Privileges Required: NONE
  • Scope: UNCHANGED
  • Confidentiality Impact: LOW
  • Integrity Impact: LOW
  • Availability Impact: NONE
  • CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

    View Vector String

Timeline

Published: March 26, 2026, 6:16 p.m.
Last Modified: March 26, 2026, 6:16 p.m.

Status : Received

CVE has been recently published to the CVE List and has been received by the NVD.

More info

*Disclaimer: Some vulnerabilities do not have an associated CPE. To enhance the data, we use AI to infer CPEs based on CVE details. This is an automated process and might not always be accurate.