ORY 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.
Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
References
History
Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | ORY 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. | |
| Title | Ory Oathkeeper has an authentication bypass by cache key confusion | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-1289 CWE-305 |
|
| References |
| |
| Metrics |
cvssV3_1
|
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: GitHub_M
Published:
Updated: 2026-03-26T17:29:41.564Z
Reserved: 2026-03-20T16:59:08.887Z
Link: CVE-2026-33496
No data.
Status : Received
Published: 2026-03-26T18:16:30.730
Modified: 2026-03-26T18:16:30.730
Link: CVE-2026-33496
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
No data.