Quarkus has Authentication/Authorization bypasses

Description

Quarkus version 3.32.4 is vulnerable to an authorization bypass issue (GHSL-2026-099), in which semicolons (matrix parameters) in HTTP requests can be used to bypass security constraints, potentially allowing unauthorized access to protected resources.

Unauthenticated or lower-privileged users can bypass HTTP path-based authorization policies by appending a semicolon (;) and arbitrary text to the request URL. The vulnerability arises from a path-normalization inconsistency: Quarkus's security layer performs authorization checks on the raw URL path (which preserves matrix parameters), whereas RESTEasy Reactive's routing layer strips matrix parameters before matching endpoints. This allows requests like /api/admin;anything to bypass policies protecting /api/admin while still routing to the protected endpoint.

Impact

This issue may lead to Authentication/Authorization bypasses.

Credits

This issue was discovered with the GitHub Security Lab Taskflow Agent and manually verified by GHSL team members @p- (Peter Stöckli) and @m-y-mo (Man Yue Mo).

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-05-04 17:20:20 UTC
Updated
2026-05-08 15:31:22 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-05-04 17:20:20 UTC
NVD published
2026-05-05

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.03% 9.22%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
8.2 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
8.8 4.0
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:L)
Limited integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N)
No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-287 Improper Authentication
CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization

Credits

  • p- (reporter)

Affected packages (4)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
maven io.quarkus:quarkus-vertx-http < 3.20.6.1 3.20.6.1
maven io.quarkus:quarkus-vertx-http >= 3.21.0, < 3.27.3.1 3.27.3.1
maven io.quarkus:quarkus-vertx-http >= 3.30.0, < 3.33.1.1 3.33.1.1
maven io.quarkus:quarkus-vertx-http >= 3.34.0, < 3.35.1.1 3.35.1.1

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence