CVE-2026-18674

Summary

On a Kong Mesh global control plane, resources received over the zone-to-global KDS sync are attributed using the in-band, sender-controlled ControlPlane.Identifier rather than the authenticated zone identity derived from the connection. Authenticated zones can have the global control plane store and re-distribute those resources as belonging to another zone.

The result is a cross-zone isolation bypass: the holder of a single enrolled zone's credential can inject, attribute, and overwrite resources in another zone's namespace mesh-wide.

The root cause lives in Kuma's open-source KDS sync code, which Kong Mesh's control plane is built on.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
Kong Inc.Kong Mesh0 < 2.7.29affected
Kong Inc.Kong Mesh2.8.0 < 2.9.19affected
Kong Inc.Kong Mesh2.10.0 < 2.11.18affected
Kong Inc.Kong Mesh2.12.0 < 2.12.14affected
Kong Inc.Kong Mesh2.13.0 < 2.13.10affected
Kong Inc.Kong Mesh2.14.0 < 2.14.2affected

Weaknesses

  • CWE-345: CWE-345 Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity
  • CWE-863: CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization

Workarounds

Restrict which zones may enroll and protect zone tokens. No configuration flag disables the in-band attribution, so upgrading is the only fix.

ADP Enrichment

CISA ADP Vulnrichment

  • SSVC:
  • Exploitation: none
    • Automatable: no
    • Technical Impact: partial

References