CVE-2026-33494: Ory Oathkeeper has a path traversal authorization bypass

Should you act?

Critical and remotely reachable

No known exploitation yet, but it is network-reachable without credentials. This signal is computed from CISA KEV, EPSS and CVSS data; it is not an editorial verdict.

• No confirmed exploitation. It is not in CISA’s KEV catalog and CISA’s SSVC assessment records no known exploitation. That can change quickly after a public write-up; re-check if you are affected.
• EPSS 0.6%, percentile 50: FIRST’s model estimates a 0.6% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 50% of all scored CVEs (low). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
• Remotely reachable with no login and no user interaction. If the vulnerable service is exposed to the internet, prioritize it.
• Only applies if your dependency tree includes github.com/ory/oathkeeper (Go) < 0.40.10-0.20260320084758-8e0002140491, fixed in 0.40.10-0.20260320084758-8e0002140491. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.

What it is

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 an authorization bypass via HTTP path traversal. An attacker can craft a URL containing path traversal sequences (e.g. /public/../admin/secrets) that resolves to a protected path after normalization, but is matched against a permissive rule because the raw, un-normalized path is used during rule evaluation. Version 26.2.0 contains a patch.

From the GitHub advisory

Description

Ory Oathkeeper is vulnerable to an authorization bypass via HTTP path traversal. An attacker can craft a URL containing path traversal sequences (e.g. /public/../admin/secrets) that resolves to a protected path after normalization, but is matched against a permissive rule because the raw, un-normalized path is used during rule evaluation.

Preconditions

Ory Oathkeeper rules are typically configured with patterns like:

Without path normalization, a request to /public/../admin/secrets is matched against the raw path /public/../admin/secrets. This matches the /public/ rule, bypassing the authentication required for /admin/secrets. After Ory Oathkeeper permits the request, the upstream server normalizes the path and serves the protected /admin/secrets resource.

Weakness type: CWE-23.

Product: github.com/ory/oathkeeper (Go) · Assigned by: GitHub_M · Published: 2026-03-26

Affected and fixed versions

Severity scores

• Attack vector: network (remotely reachable)
• Attack complexity: low
• Privileges required: none (no login)
• User interaction: none
• Scope: changed (can affect other components)

CVSS measures how bad a flaw is if exploited, not how likely exploitation is. Read it next to the exploitation data below.

Exploitation and urgency

• CISA KEV: not listed (no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known to CISA).
• CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation none, automatable yes, technical impact total.
• FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 0.64% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 50.

Timeline

• 2026-03-20 — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-p224-6x5r-fjpm published (critical)
• 2026-03-26 — CVE record published by GitHub_M
• 2026-03-27 — CVE record last updated

Sources and references

Original sources first. Version and fix details should always be confirmed against the vendor or project advisory.

Vulnerability records

1. GitHub Advisory GHSA-p224-6x5r-fjpm github.com
2. CVE.org record CVE-2026-33494 cve.org
3. NVD entry CVE-2026-33494 nvd.nist.gov

Other references from the CVE record and advisory

1. github.com github.com
2. github.com github.com

Critical Go advisories · Today’s Security Digest