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OAuth2 Proxy's Health Check User-Agent Matching Bypasses Authentication in auth_request Mode

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Apr 14, 2026 in oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy • Updated Apr 15, 2026

Package

gomod github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy (Go)

Affected versions

<= 3.2.0

Patched versions

None
gomod github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7 (Go)
< 7.15.2
7.15.2

Description

Impact

A configuration-dependent authentication bypass exists in OAuth2 Proxy.

Deployments are affected when all of the following are true:

  • OAuth2 Proxy is used with an auth_request-style integration (for example, nginx auth_request)
  • --ping-user-agent is set or --gcp-healthchecks is enabled

In affected configurations, OAuth2 Proxy will treat a request with the configured health check User-Agent value as a successful health check regardless of the requested path. This allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to bypass authentication and access protected upstream resources without completing the normal login flow.

This issue does not affect deployments that do not use auth_request-style subrequests, or that do not enable --ping-user-agent/--gcp-healthchecks.

Patches

Users should upgrade to v7.15.2 or later once available. Deployments running versions prior to v7.15.2 should be considered affected if they use auth_request-style authentication together with --ping-user-agent or --gcp-healthchecks.

Workarounds

Users can mitigate this issue by:

  • disabling --gcp-healthchecks
  • removing any configured --ping-user-agent
  • ensuring the reverse proxy does not forward client-controlled User-Agent headers to the OAuth2 Proxy auth subrequest
  • using path-based health checks only, on dedicated health check endpoints

Example nginx mitigation for the auth subrequest:

location = /oauth2/auth {
    internal;
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4180;
    proxy_pass_request_body off;
    proxy_set_header Content-Length "";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    # set to value that isn't the same as your configured PingUserAgent or GCPs "GoogleHC/1.0"
    proxy_set_header User-Agent "oauth2-proxy-auth-request";
}

References

@tuunit tuunit published to oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy Apr 14, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Apr 14, 2026
Reviewed Apr 14, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Apr 14, 2026
Last updated Apr 15, 2026

Severity

Critical

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(27th percentile)

Weaknesses

Authentication Bypass by Spoofing

This attack-focused weakness is caused by incorrectly implemented authentication schemes that are subject to spoofing attacks. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-34457

GHSA ID

GHSA-5hvv-m4w4-gf6v

Credits

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