# CVE-2026-82180: Auth bypass in Eclipse Arrowhead

> Attackers can bypass MQTT authentication by sending unverified self-signed certificates, gaining system operator privileges and full management access.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.5 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 3 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-268c-4cfr-fmcj

## What is CVE-2026-82180?

CVE-2026-82180 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Eclipse Arrowhead, published on 3 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In Eclipse Arrowhead versions from 5.0.0 to 5.2.1 when the MQTT API is enabled with the certificate authentication policy, CertificateMqttFilter parses an X.509 certificate that the client sends inside the MQTT message payload (the authentication field of MqttRequestTemplate) and treats its Subject DN as the authenticated identity. The certificate is decoded with CertificateFactory.generateCertificate() but its signature is never verified and its issuer chain is never validated against any trust store. Authorisation is reduced to two string comparisons on attacker-supplied data: the DN-qualifier must equal "sy" or "op", and the cloud-name part of the CN must match the server's. Both values are public (the cloud name is in the server's own TLS certificate). An attacker who can publish to the MQTT broker can therefore mint a self-signed certificate with CN=Sysop.<cloud>.<org>.arrowhead.eu, dnQualifier=op, send it as the authentication field, and be authenticated as the cloud's system operator with isSysOp == true. This passes the downstream ManagementServiceMqttFilter (request.isSysOp() → allowed) and gives full management access over MQTT. The HTTP CertificateFilter is not affected — it reads the certificate from jakarta.servlet.request.X509Certificate, which Tomcat populates only after a successful mTLS handshake against the configured trust store.

Weakness: CWE-295 (Improper Certificate Validation), CWE-290 (Authentication Bypass by Spoofing)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-82180?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-82180?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-82180 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-82180 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-82180 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-82180 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-82180 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Eclipse Arrowhead, published on 3 Sep 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-2026-82180 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Eclipse Arrowhead. 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-2026-82180/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-82180/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-82180
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-82180
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-82180

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-82180/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.