CVE-2026-53708: IBM mcp-context-forge · Reliance on Reverse DNS Resolution for a Security-Critical Action
Affects IBM mcp-context-forgeSource CVE Database V5
Public exploit available · CVSS 6.6 Medium : upgrade to 1.0.3 as a priority.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 28% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- Proof of concept is public or traded
- Automatable
- Attackers cannot reliably automate steps 1–4 of the kill chain
- Technical impact
- Limited control over the software or limited information exposure
CISA SSVC assessment, 2026-09-14.
- Patch
- Available – fixed in 1.0.3
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:NExploitation evidence
t = 0 is the CVE’s publication on cve.org
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 14 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
Timeline
CVE ID reserved
by GitHub, Inc.
, 96 days before disclosure
CVE published
on cve.org
, t = 0
CISA SSVC assessment
proof of concept public
, 36 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.
What to do
Upgrade mcp-context-forge and mcp-contextforge-gateway to 1.0.3.
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| IBMmcp-context-forge | Affected
| Fixed in
|
| IBMmcp-contextforge-gateway | Affected
| Fixed in
|
Description
ContextForge is an AI gateway, registry, and proxy that provides centralized discovery, guardrails, and management for MCP, A2A, and REST or gRPC APIs. Prior to 1.0.3, the /admin/gateways/test call site in mcpgateway/admin.py calls validate_gateway_test_url() in mcpgateway/common/validators.py to resolve and reject private, loopback, link-local, and cloud-metadata addresses, but ResilientHttpClient later resolves the original hostname again without binding the validated address. When MCPGATEWAY_ADMIN_API_ENABLED is enabled, an attacker with a database-backed role containing explicit gateways.read permission can use DNS rebinding to return a public address during validation and a private or metadata address during connection, bypassing ssrf_blocked_networks and ssrf_dns_fail_closed because those controls apply only to the validation-time result. The endpoint's allow_admin_bypass=False setting means a bootstrap-only virtual platform-admin identity without a database role is not sufficient. Successful exploitation can reach internal services and cloud metadata, expose cloud credentials, access internal APIs, or probe internal network ports. This issue is fixed in version 1.0.3.