CVE-2026-88018: rclone serve s3: --auth-proxy without --auth-key authenticates nobody - full SigV4 signature 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.

• Not in CISA KEV, but CISA’s SSVC assessment records a public proof-of-concept, so attack code exists.
• EPSS 0.5%, percentile 43: FIRST’s model estimates a 0.5% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 43% 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/rclone/rclone (Go) < 1.75.1, fixed in 1.75.1. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.

What it is

rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Prior to 1.75.1, rclone serve s3 configured with --auth-proxy but without --auth-key allows authPairMiddleware to register any client-chosen accessKeyID with an empty ws.s3Secret. gofakes3 then verifies the request’s SigV4 signature against that same empty secret, while Server.auth passes the access key identifier as both the user and authentication value to the proxy without an independent per-identity secret. An unauthenticated network attacker can therefore choose an arbitrary access key, sign with an empty secret, and reach whatever backend the auth-proxy script resolves for that identity. This issue is fixed in version 1.75.1.

From the GitHub advisory

Summary rclone serve s3's handler chain, when --auth-proxy is configured, is (outermost first): authPairMiddleware -> proxyAuthMiddleware -> gofakes3's own SigV4-verifying handler.

authPairMiddleware parses the accessKeyID straight out of the incoming request's own Authorization header (entirely client-controlled) and registers {accessKey: ws.s3Secret} into gofakes3's shared credential store via AddAuthKeys, for EVERY access key any client presents - not just ones previously known to the server. ws.s3Secret defaults to "" whenever --auth-key is not set, which the --auth-proxy documentation (and the reference bin/testproxy.py) presents as a complete, standalone authentication mechanism requiring no other flag - matching how it's used for serve webdav/ftp/sftp.

gofakes3's SigV4 verification then checks the request's signature against exactly the secret authPairMiddleware just registered for that same client-chosen key. An empty string is a valid HMAC key, so a caller can trivially compute a correct SigV4 signature for ANY access key ID of their choosing using an empty secret, and verification passes.

Crucially, the auth-proxy script never receives a real secret to verify against, for S3 specifically: Server.auth() calls w.proxy.Call(md5(accessKeyID), accessKeyID, false, r.RemoteAddr) - passing the access key ID itself as BOTH the hashed "user" and the raw "auth"/password fields. Contrast with serve webdav/ftp/sftp, whose proxy integration passes the client's actual typed password (see bin/testproxy.py, which forwards it into a backing SFTP login for real verification). For S3, no independent secret is ever transmitted to the proxy script at all, so no script - however carefully written - can distinguish a legitimate holder of an access key ID from an attacker who merely picked the same string.

Net effect: with --auth-proxy configured and --auth-key not also set (the configuration the feature is documented to support standalone), SigV4 signature verification authenticates nobody.

Weakness type: CWE-287, CWE-306.

Product: github.com/rclone/rclone (Go) · Assigned by: GitHub_M · Published: 2026-09-10

Affected and fixed versions

Severity scores

• Attack vector: network (remotely reachable)
• Attack complexity: low
• Privileges required: none (no login)
• User interaction: none
• Scope: unchanged

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 poc, automatable yes, technical impact total.
• FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 0.51% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 43.

Timeline

• 2026-09-10 — CVE record last updated
• 2026-09-10 — CVE record published by GitHub_M
• 2026-09-10 — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-xwwr-4h3p-r22c published (critical)

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-xwwr-4h3p-r22c github.com
2. CVE.org record CVE-2026-88018 cve.org
3. NVD entry CVE-2026-88018 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

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