Ory Oathkeeper has an authentication bypass by cache key confusion

Summary

CVECVE-2026-33496
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-03-26 18:16:30 UTC
Updated2026-03-30 13:26:50 UTC
DescriptionORY Oathkeeper is an Identity & Access Proxy (IAP) and Access Control Decision API that authorizes HTTP requests based on sets of Access Rules. Versions prior to 26.2.0 are vulnerable to authentication bypass due to cache key confusion. The `oauth2_introspection` authenticator cache does not distinguish tokens that were validated with different introspection URLs. An attacker can therefore legitimately use a token to prime the cache, and subsequently use the same token for rules that use a different introspection server. Ory Oathkeeper has to be configured with multiple `oauth2_introspection` authenticator servers, each accepting different tokens. The authenticators also must be configured to use caching. An attacker has to have a way to gain a valid token for one of the configured introspection servers. Starting in version 26.2.0, Ory Oathkeeper includes the introspection server URL in the cache key, preventing confusion of tokens. Update to the patched version of Ory Oathkeeper. If that is not immediately possible, disable caching for `oauth2_introspection` authenticators.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 8.1 HIGH from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS: 0.001400000 probability, percentile 0.338710000 (date 2026-04-01)

Problem Types: CWE-305 | CWE-1289 | CWE-1289 CWE-1289: Improper Validation of Unsafe Equivalence in Input | CWE-305 CWE-305: Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary8.1HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
3.1CNADECLARED8.1HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Ory Oathkeeper affected < 26.2.0 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/ory/oathkeeper/commit/198a2bc82a99e0a77bd0ffe290cbdd5285a1b17c [email protected] github.com
github.com/ory/oathkeeper/security/advisories/GHSA-4mq7-pvjg-xp2r [email protected] github.com
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NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis
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