Auth bypass in Headroomlabs-Ai Headroom

CVE-2026-71416

Headroom compresses data before the data reaches a large language model. Prior to version 0.35.0, the Headroom WebSocket server does not validate the `Origin` header of incoming client WebSocket requests before forwarding the request to the upstream server, allowing malicious WebSocket clients to perform arbitrary LLM requests without authentication. This can be exploited by a malicious WebSocket client executed in a traditional or headless browser such as lightpanda, if the browser has access to the Headroom proxy and the OpenAI API key is stored in the `OPENAI_API_KEY` environment variable. Version 0.35.0 fixes the issue.

Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-71416?
CVE-2026-71416 is a high-severity vulnerability in Headroomlabs-Ai Headroom, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2026-09-11.
How severe is CVE-2026-71416?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.