Consul vulnerable to an authorization bypass in the Connect service mesh (CVE-2026-88021) | HOL Guard CVE

Unknown severity · Source severity not reportedCVE-2026-88021

Consul vulnerable to an authorization bypass in the Connect service mesh

Answer in brief

CVE-2026-88021 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in Consul vulnerable to an authorization bypass in the Connect service mesh. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps HashiCorp/Consul (generic), HashiCorp/Consul Enterprise (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Analysis pending evidence review

HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.

Published Sep 10, 2026Updated Sep 10, 2026Source checked Sep 10, 2026First seen by HOL Sep 10, 2026Material review Sep 10, 2026

Upstream Advisory

Key facts

Risk: Unknown severitySource severity not reported
Exploitation: Not marked as known exploited
Affected software: 2 mapped packages or products
Fix availability: Available

Why this deserves its current priority

A CVSS score is not reported in the current record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.

Analysis status

Analysis pending evidence review

Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps HashiCorp/Consul (generic), HashiCorp/Consul Enterprise (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
HashiCorp/Consulgeneric	>=1.9.0 <2.0.4	2.0.4
HashiCorp/Consul Enterprisegeneric	>=1.9.0 <2.0.4	2.0.4

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for HashiCorp/Consul, HashiCorp/Consul Enterprise.
Review the reported fix. Update HashiCorp/Consul to 2.0.4; HashiCorp/Consul Enterprise to 2.0.4 if you use the affected versions. Test the change in a non-production environment first.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Sep 10, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Sep 10, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Sep 10, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Source referencediscuss.hashicorp.com

Upstream source description

Consul and Consul Enterprise are vulnerable to an authorization bypass in the Connect service mesh that may allow a service to reach a destination it is not authorized to access. When building Envoy RBAC rules to enforce Connect intentions, Consul did not correctly escape certain characters in service names, namespaces, and partitions, causing the generated authorization rules to match more broadly than intended. This vulnerability (CVE-2026-88021) is fixed in Consul 2.0.4 and Consul Enterprise 1.21.18, 1.22.12 and 2.0.4.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.