# CVE-2026-111443: Security feature bypass in Wheels

> Attackers can bypass maintenance mode and rate limits by injecting test context headers or cookies, potentially causing resource exhaustion.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 16 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jf33-wf86-q3mp, GHSA-xcj9-wm25-4cg4

## What is CVE-2026-111443?

CVE-2026-111443 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wheels, published on 16 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Wheels 4.0.6 through 4.1.2 lets an unauthenticated client switch a request into a separate test application context, including in production, by supplying an X-Wheels-Test-Context header or WHEELS_TEST_CONTEXT cookie with any value, or including a test-runner path anywhere in the URL, even the query string. The alternate application uses the same configuration, environment, datasource and debug settings: this is not an authentication bypass or data/debug escalation. It can bypass maintenance mode enabled only at runtime, provide a second set of in-memory rate-limit counters, and trigger additional application-startup side effects and memory use. This is fixed in 4.2.0.

Weakness: CWE-348 (Use of Less Trusted Source)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-111443?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-111443?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-111443 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-111443 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-111443 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-111443 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-111443 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Wheels, published on 16 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-111443 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Wheels. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-111443/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-111443/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-111443
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-111443
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-111443

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-111443/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.