CVE-2026-45021
MediumCVSS 5.1Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk10th percentile - higher than 10% of all known CVEs
Summary
Kuma prior to 2.7.25, 2.9.15, 2.11.13, 2.12.10, and 2.13.5 has a default kuma-cp config that leaks the admin bootstrap token and signing keys to any webpage the operator visits while the control plane is reachable from their browser. CorsAllowedDomains: [".*"] reflects any Origin, and LocalhostIsAdmin: true promotes requests from 127.0.0.1 to mesh-system:admin.
Risk Assessment
A malicious webpage can perform a cross-origin fetch and obtain the admin JWT and signing material, leading to full compromise of the control plane. The risk is high as it only requires the operator to visit a page.
Recommendation
Update Kuma to version 2.7.25, 2.9.15, 2.11.13, 2.12.10, or 2.13.5 (or later). Change default CorsAllowedDomains and LocalhostIsAdmin settings to restrictive values.
Other vulnerabilities in Kuma
See all- CVE-2026-52724Medium
In Kuma prior to 2.7.26, 2.9.16, 2.11.14, 2.12.11, and 2.13.7, Universal mode kuma-dp connections to an HTTPS control plane disable TLS peer verification when --ca-cert-file is not supplied and KUMA_CONTROL_PLANE_CA_CERT is unset. The dataplane authentication token is sent over the unverified connection, allowing an on-path attacker to intercept the token, impersonate the control plane, inject a forged bootstrap configuration, and take over the proxy.
- CVE-2026-50166Medium
In Kuma prior to 2.7.26, 2.9.16, 2.11.14, 2.12.11, and 2.13.7, a kumactl profile manually configured for an HTTPS control plane without --ca-cert-file disables TLS peer verification and sends API tokens over the unverified connection. An attacker on the network path can intercept user or administrator API tokens and act against the control plane as the compromised user.
- CVE-2026-18679Medium
When kuma-dp is started against an HTTPS control plane without a CA certificate, TLS peer verification is disabled and the dataplane authentication token is sent over that unverified connection.
- CVE-2026-18678Medium
When an operator adds an HTTPS control plane profile to kumactl without providing a CA certificate, kumactl disables TLS verification and sends API tokens over the unverified connection.
- CVE-2026-18675Medium
The dataplane token validator in kuma-cp performs an unchecked Go type assertion on the JWT kid header. A token whose kid is a JSON number decodes as a float64 and triggers a runtime panic before any signature, claims, or authorization check runs.
Original NVD description (English source)
Kuma is a modern Envoy-based service mesh that can run on every cloud across both Kubernetes and VMs. Prior to 2.7.25, 2.9.15, 2.11.13, 2.12.10, and 2.13.5, the default kuma-cp config leaks the admin bootstrap token and signing keys to any webpage the operator visits while the control plane is reachable from their browser. CorsAllowedDomains: [".*"] reflects any Origin, and LocalhostIsAdmin: true promotes requests from 127.0.0.1 to mesh-system:admin. A cross-origin fetch() from a malicious page returns the admin JWT and signing material. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.7.25, 2.9.15, 2.11.13, 2.12.10, and 2.13.5.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

