Auth bypass in Rclone
CVE-2026-88018
rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Prior to 1.75.1, rclone serve s3 configured with --auth-proxy but without --auth-key allows authPairMiddleware to register any client-chosen accessKeyID with an empty ws.s3Secret. gofakes3 then verifies the request’s SigV4 signature against that same empty secret, while Server.auth passes the access key identifier as both the user and authentication value to the proxy without an independent per-identity secret. An unauthenticated network attacker can therefore choose an arbitrary access key, sign with an empty secret, and reach whatever backend the auth-proxy script resolves for that identity. This issue is fixed in version 1.75.1.
Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Rclone — versions < 1.75.1
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-88018?
- CVE-2026-88018 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Rclone, classified under Improper Authentication. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-09-10.
- How severe is CVE-2026-88018?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.