VulnerabilityPublished 28 Jul 2026

CVE-2026-49446: Cosmos-Server has an authentication bypass via forward-auth header smuggling on Constellation tunnel

Affects github.com/azukaar/cosmos-serverSource GCVE Database

Authoritative record:CVE-2026-49446· Medium 6.1

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.1 Medium : upgrade to 0.22.19 when convenient.

Data as of 27 Oct 2026, 05:11 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.1Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 22% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.22.19

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

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

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Adjacent: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack, but the attack is limited at the protocol level to a logically adjacent topology. This can mean an attack must be launched from the same shared physical (e.g., Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11) or logical (e.g., local IP subnet) network, or from within a secure or otherwise limited administrative domain (e.g., MPLS, secure VPN to an administrative network zone).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

t = 0 is the CVE’s publication on cve.org

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 15 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: evidence found.
CISA SSVC: proof of concept public
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

CVE ID reserved
by GitHub, Inc.
30 May 202602:43 UTC, 108 days before disclosure
CVE published
on cve.org
15 Sep 202614:31 UTC, t = 0
CISA SSVC assessment
proof of concept public
15 Sep 202614:50 UTC, 19 minutes after disclosure

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), CISA SSVC, the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade github.com/azukaar/cosmos-server to 0.22.19.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Gogithub.com/azukaar/cosmos-server	Affected <0.22.19	Fixed in 0.22.19

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Upgrade Cosmos Server to version 0.22.19 or later, where this authentication bypass vulnerability is fixed. No additional mitigation is required once the update is applied.

Description

Cosmos provides users the ability self-host a home server by acting as a secure gateway to your application, as well as a server manager. Prior to 0.22.19, tokenMiddleware in src/proxy/routerGen.go can return through the Constellation tunnel bypass before removing x-cosmos-user, x-cosmos-role, x-cosmos-user-role, and x-cosmos-mfa headers and before invoking AdminOnlyWithRedirect. An attacker with a valid x-cstln-auth API key for an enrolled device who reaches Cosmos through the Constellation Nebula tunnel can supply a chosen x-cosmos-user value to a route with AuthEnabled enabled when the upstream application trusts that forward-auth header. The request can bypass Cosmos JWT, password, MFA, and AdminOnly checks, allowing user impersonation and admin-tier reads or writes exposed by the proxied application. This issue is fixed in version 0.22.19.

Impact

An attacker with a valid API key for an enrolled device can bypass multiple authentication mechanisms including JWT, password, MFA, and admin-only restrictions. This enables user impersonation and unauthorized access to admin-level functions in the proxied application, potentially leading to unauthorized data reads and writes. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 6.1 (medium severity) and does not currently have known exploits in the wild.

Summary

Cosmos Server's tokenMiddleware component in versions before 0.22.19 improperly handles headers in the Constellation tunnel, allowing an attacker with a valid x-cstln-auth API key to bypass authentication controls by injecting a chosen x-cosmos-user header. This bypass occurs before removal of sensitive headers and before enforcement of admin-only access controls, enabling user impersonation and unauthorized admin-level access to proxied application routes that trust the forward-auth header. The vulnerability is identified as CVE-2026-49446 and fixed in version 0.22.19.

CWE-285Improper Authorization (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighOWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that you perform access control checks related to your business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that you apply to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
V7.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs (opens in a new tab)
Cross Zone Scripting (opens in a new tab)
Directory Indexing (opens in a new tab)
Subverting Environment Variable Values (opens in a new tab)
Using Malicious Files (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-290Authentication Bypass by Spoofing (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessOWASP Top 10 A07:2025: Authentication Failures (opens in a new tab)
This attack-focused weakness is caused by incorrectly implemented authentication schemes that are subject to spoofing attacks.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
REST Security (opens in a new tab)
JSON Web Token for Java (opens in a new tab)
OWASP Authentication (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V3.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
V2.8.5 (opens in a new tab)
V2.8.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Creating a Rogue Certification Authority Certificate (opens in a new tab)
Web Services API Signature Forgery Leveraging Hash Function Extension Weakness (opens in a new tab)
Signature Spoof (opens in a new tab)
Signature Spoofing by Misrepresentation (opens in a new tab)
Session Credential Falsification through Prediction (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

Timeline

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 20 Sep 2026, 22:16 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-285, CWE-290

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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