CVE-2026-61682: kcp front-proxy does not strip inbound X-Remote-* identity headers, allowing any authenticated client to inject groups/warrants and impersonate system:masters in any workspace

Should you act?

Critical, preconditions apply

Severe if exploited, but exploitation needs conditions that may not apply to you. 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 0.4%, percentile 31: FIRST’s model estimates a 0.4% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 31% of all scored CVEs (low). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
• Needs an account (low (any account)). Exposure depends on who can log in.
• Only applies if your dependency tree includes github.com/kcp-dev/kcp (Go) < 0.31.4, fixed in 0.31.4; github.com/kcp-dev/kcp (Go) >= 0.32.0, < 0.32.2, fixed in 0.32.2. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.

What it is

kcp is a Kubernetes-like control plane for form-factors and use-cases beyond Kubernetes and container workloads. Prior to 0.31.4 and 0.32.2, the kcp front-proxy does not remove inbound X-Remote-User, X-Remote-Group, or X-Remote-Extra- identity headers before forwarding requests to shards. Any authenticated tenant can inject X-Remote-Group: system:masters, authorization.kcp.io/warrant, authentication.kcp.io/scopes, or a group used for per-workspace required-group gating, and the shard trusts these values as authenticated identity assertions. This allows cross-workspace impersonation, authorization bypass, and arbitrary reading, writing, or deletion of resources, secrets, RBAC data, APIExports, APIBindings, and LogicalClusters. This issue is fixed in versions 0.31.4 and 0.32.2.

From the GitHub advisory

Summary

The kcp front-proxy fails to strip client-supplied identity headers before forwarding requests to shards. Any authenticated tenant can inject their own X-Remote-Group and X-Remote-Extra- headers, which the shard trusts as a verified identity assertion — allowing a low-privilege user to escalate to cluster administrator (system:masters) and read, write, or delete resources in any workspace on the shard. This is a complete multi-tenant isolation and authorization bypass.

Impact

In a sharded kcp deployment, external clients reach shards through the front-proxy, which authenticates the client and then forwards the resulting identity to the shard using Kubernetes request-header authentication (X-Remote-User / X-Remote-Group / X-Remote-Extra-). The shard trusts these headers because they arrive over the front-proxy's mutually-authenticated connection.

Because the front-proxy appended its identity headers instead of replacing them — and never removed any copies the client sent — an authenticated attacker could smuggle forged identity headers through to the shard. With this, an attacker holding any ordinary credential (client certificate, OIDC token, or service-account token) and no special privileges could:

Weakness type: CWE-290, CWE-302, CWE-348.

Product: github.com/kcp-dev/kcp (Go) · Assigned by: GitHub_M · Published: 2026-09-18

Affected and fixed versions

Severity scores

• Attack vector: network (remotely reachable)
• Attack complexity: low
• Privileges required: low (any account)
• 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 no, technical impact total.
• FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 0.38% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 31.

Timeline

• 2026-09-18 — CVE record published by GitHub_M
• 2026-09-18 — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-c8w2-fgvx-vhv4 published (critical)
• 2026-09-21 — 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-c8w2-fgvx-vhv4 github.com
2. CVE.org record CVE-2026-61682 cve.org
3. NVD entry CVE-2026-61682 nvd.nist.gov

Other references from the CVE record and advisory

1. github.com github.com
2. github.com github.com
3. github.com github.com
4. github.com github.com
5. github.com github.com

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