GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go
GHSA-8qqm-fp2q-v734 Skipper: Incomplete fix for CVE-2026-50197: an oversized body can bypass OPA deny-on-presence Rego policies
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-65838
- Ecosystem
- Go
- Packages
- github.com/zalando/skipper
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-444
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-17
Affected packages
• Go github.com/zalando/skipper: < 0.27.26 → fixed in 0.27.26
Description
Summary
A wrong policy can be an open door.
You have to check `input.attributes.request.http.truncated_body` in your policy.
Description
Incomplete fix for CVE-2026-50197: an oversized declared-`Content-Length` body still hands OPA an empty `parsed_body`, so deny-on-presence Rego policies fail OPEN while the full payload reaches upstream.
The CVE-2026-50197 fix (commit `3152f3b0`, PR #4041, v0.26.10) substituted `expectedSize = maxBodyBytes`
only when `req.ContentLength maxBodyBytes`, the body-extraction `if` is
skipped entirely, and `ExtractHttpBodyOptionally` returns `rawBodyBytes = nil` — so OPA evaluates an empty
`parsed_body`, while the full forbidden payload still flows to the upstream. A deny-on-presence policy
(`default allow = true; allow = false if input.parsed_body.`) — the exact Rego shape the
advisory describes — fails OPEN. The fix's own comment reasons only about `ContentLength == -1`; the
oversized branch was never considered, and the added PoC test only covers small bodies.
Affected code
• `filters/openpolicyagent/openpolicyagent.go` `ExtractHttpBodyOptionally`: the
`expectedSize opaAuthorizeRequestWithBody("test") -> upstream`:
• `{"action":"delete"}` (19B ≤ 32) → 403 (denied).
• `{"action":"delete","pad":"X..64"}` (> 32) → 200, upstream received the full body (BYPASS).
• small chunked `{"action":"delete"}` → 403 (positive control: the original CVE is fixed).
(Library-tier: validated via Skipper's real proxy test harness, not a deploy of the official image; benign
oracle = status diff + upstream-received body; no RCE.)
Impact
Deployments authorizing on request-body content via `opaAuthorizeRequestWithBody` + deny-on-presence Rego
can be bypassed by inflating the request body past `-open-policy-agent-max-request-body-size` (default
1 MB); the full payload still reaches the upstream.
Mitigation
Document how policy owners should block requests with oversized body.
Example deny by default and use "allow if" no oversized body:
```rego
default allow := false
allow if {
input.attributes.request.http.truncated_body == false
# ... body-based conditions
}
```
Example allow by default and use "deny if" an oversized body:
```rego
default deny := false
deny if {
input.attributes.request.http.truncated_body == true
# ... body-based conditions
}
```
Documentation is published by https://github.com/zalando/skipper/releases/tag/v0.27.26
Credit
Reported as part of an incomplete-patch measurement study (responsible disclosure).
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-65838 Skipper is an HTTP router and reverse proxy for service composition. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-444 Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests weakness
References
- https://github.com/zalando/skipper/security/advisories/GHSA-8qqm-fp2q-v734 web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-65838 advisory
- https://github.com/zalando/skipper/commit/2cfceabaa6ff0af65b312dcb9bcbe84691b9d507 web
- https://github.com/zalando/skipper package
- https://github.com/zalando/skipper/releases/tag/v0.27.26 web
- https://github.com/zalando/skipper/releases/tag/v0.27.35 web