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CVE-2026-54745 – Unauthenticated SSRF (Critical) – Kubeflow Pipelines Frontend ≤ 2.16.0

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Summary

CVE-2026-54745 is a critical, unauthenticated Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) and HTTP smuggling vulnerability in the Kubeflow Pipelines frontend, affecting the /_proxy/ route. The flaw allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to force the Kubeflow Pipelines frontend server to forward arbitrary HTTP/HTTPS requests — including attacker-controlled methods, headers (such as Authorization, Cookie, and X-Forwarded-For), and POST bodies — to internal or cloud-internal services. The issue carries a maximum CVSS score of 10.0, as it can lead to full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Technical details

  • Root cause: The _routePathWithReferer() function in the frontend’s proxy-middleware.ts extracts a target URL from user-controlled input (including the Referer header) and passes it directly to the proxy middleware without validating it against a host allowlist or filtering loopback, link-local, RFC1918, or cluster-internal addresses.
  • Trigger conditions: The proxy route registration is not gated behind authentication middleware, so the SSRF is exploitable even when ENABLE_AUTHZ=true is configured. Requests can be sent directly to paths such as /apis/v2beta1/_proxy/http://<target>/<path> or triggered indirectly via a crafted Referer header, and affect multiple path prefixes (/_proxy/, /apis/v1beta1/_proxy/, /apis/v2beta1/_proxy/, and their /pipeline/ equivalents).
  • Attack vector: Network, no authentication or user interaction required (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N).
  • Impact: An attacker can reach internal services (Kubernetes API server, etcd, kubelet), query cloud instance metadata endpoints (AWS IMDS, GCP/Azure metadata) to steal IAM credentials, replay forwarded tokens/cookies against internal endpoints, and smuggle attacker-controlled POST bodies to internal services — enabling both data exfiltration and unauthorized modification of internal systems.

Affected software

  • Kubeflow Pipelines frontend, all versions prior to 2.17.0

Severity

CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 10.0 (Critical)
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Upgrade Kubeflow Pipelines to version 2.17.0 or later, which fixes the unvalidated proxy target handling.
  • If immediate patching is not possible:
    • Restrict network access to the Kubeflow Pipelines frontend/UI to trusted internal networks only; do not expose it directly to the internet.
    • Deploy network policies that block pod-to-cloud-metadata-service traffic (e.g., block access to 169.254.169.254) from the Kubeflow Pipelines namespace.
    • Consider disabling or removing the /_proxy/ route/feature if it is not required for your deployment.
    • Monitor logs for requests to /_proxy/, /apis/v1beta1/_proxy/, or /apis/v2beta1/_proxy/ paths, and for anomalous outbound traffic to internal IP ranges or metadata endpoints originating from the Kubeflow Pipelines frontend.

References

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