# CVE-2026-18679: Kong Mesh: kuma-dp connects to the control plane without verifying the TLS certificate when no CA is configured

> An on-path attacker can intercept authentication tokens and impersonate the control plane to inject forged configurations when TLS verification is disabled.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.8 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 12 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 13 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-wc82-hqx6-g35q

## What is CVE-2026-18679?

CVE-2026-18679 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Kong Mesh, published on 12 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

When kuma-dp is started against an HTTPS control plane and the operator did not pass a CA certificate, the data plane connects with TLS peer verification disabled, and the dataplane authentication token is sent over that unverified connection.

An on-path actor can intercept the dataplane authentication token and impersonate the control plane to the data plane, injecting a forged bootstrap configuration and taking over the proxy.

Weakness: CWE-295 (Improper Certificate Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-18679?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-18679?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-18679 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-18679 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-18679 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-18679 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Kong Mesh, published on 12 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-18679 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Kong Mesh. 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-2026-18679/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-18679/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-18679
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-18679
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-18679

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-18679/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.