CVE-2026-26998
CWE-770Published: March 5, 2026· Updated: Mar 6, 2026
Official Description
Traefik is an HTTP reverse proxy and load balancer. Prior to versions 2.11.38 and 3.6.9, there is a potential vulnerability in Traefik managing the ForwardAuth middleware responses. When Traefik is configured to use the ForwardAuth middleware, the response body from the authentication server is read entirely into memory without any size limit. There is no maxResponseBodySize configuration to restrict the amount of data read from the authentication server response. If the authentication server returns an unexpectedly large or unbounded response body, Traefik will allocate unlimited memory, potentially causing an out-of-memory (OOM) condition that crashes the process. This results in a denial of service for all routes served by the affected Traefik instance. This issue has been patched in versions 2.11.38 and 3.6.9.
Technical Analysis
CVE-2026-26998 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.
Exploitation requires high privileges, which limits the exposure to scenarios where an attacker has already gained initial access.
A successful exploit results in availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 4.4.
CVSS v3.1 Vector Breakdown
Affected Vendors & Products
Exploit & PoC Resources
Official Patches & Advisories
All References (3)
Quick Facts
Related CVEs (CWE-770)
Recommended Actions
- →Apply vendor patches immediately
- →Monitor CVE-2026-26998 in threat intel feeds
- →Review IDS/IPS signatures for exploitation attempts