CVE-2026-73552

Envoy: HTTP RBAC safe_regex can fail open on RFC-valid obs-text header values

Published Sep 21, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Envoy is an open source edge and service proxy designed for cloud-native applications. Prior to 1.36.10, 1.37.6, 1.38.4, and 1.39.1, Envoy HTTP RBAC accepts RFC-valid opaque header bytes but evaluates safe_regex values with RE2's UTF-8 subject semantics. A downstream client can preserve a prohibited marker and add an unrelated obs-text octet, causing RE2::FullMatch to return false and a negative RBAC policy to treat the invalid subject as an ordinary no-match. A byte-oriented route matcher can still observe the marker, allowing the request to reach a route intended to be denied. The relevant scope boundary is that plain positive ALLOW regexes normally fail closed, and exact, prefix, suffix, and contains matchers are not shown to have this subject-domain failure. This issue is fixed in versions 1.36.10, 1.37.6, 1.38.4, and 1.39.1.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:envoyproxy:envoy:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description No description is available for this CVE. Envoy is an open source edge and service proxy designed for cloud-native applications. Prior to 1.36.10, 1.37.6, 1.38.4, and 1.39.1, Envoy HTTP RBAC accepts RFC-valid opaque header bytes but evaluates safe_regex values with RE2's UTF-8 subject semantics. A downstream client can preserve a prohibited marker and add an unrelated obs-text octet, causing RE2::FullMatch to return false and a negative RBAC policy to treat the invalid subject as an ordinary no-match. A byte-oriented route matcher can still observe the marker, allowing the request to reach a route intended to be denied. The relevant scope boundary is that plain positive ALLOW regexes normally fail closed, and exact, prefix, suffix, and contains matchers are not shown to have this subject-domain failure. This issue is fixed in versions 1.36.10, 1.37.6, 1.38.4, and 1.39.1.
Title envoy: envoy: RBAC safe_regex fails to match non-UTF-8 HTTP header values Envoy: HTTP RBAC safe_regex can fail open on RFC-valid obs-text header values
Weaknesses CWE-20
References
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Envoyproxy
Envoyproxy envoy
Vendors & Products Envoyproxy
Envoyproxy envoy
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description No description is available for this CVE.
Title envoy: envoy: RBAC safe_regex fails to match non-UTF-8 HTTP header values
Weaknesses CWE-863
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N'}

threat_severity

Important

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Sep 22, 2026, 3:39 PM
Reserved
Aug 12, 2026, 8:53 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Sep 21, 2026, 8:17 PM
Modified
Oct 5, 2026, 2:35 PM
Severity
Important
Public date
Aug 26, 2026, 1:00 PM