MinIO has an Unauthenticated Object Write via Query-String Credential Signature Bypass in Unsigned-Trailer Uploads

Summary

MinIO is a high-performance object storage system. Starting in RELEASE.2023-05-18T00-05-36Z and prior to RELEASE.2026-04-11T03-20-12Z, an authentication bypass vulnerability in MinIO's `STREAMING-UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD-TRAILER` code path allows any user who knows a valid access key to write arbitrary objects to any bucket without knowing the secret key or providing a valid cryptographic signature. Any MinIO deployment is impacted. The attack requires only a valid access key (the well-known default `minioadmin`, or any key with WRITE permission on a bucket) and a target bucket name. `PutObjectHandler` and `PutObjectPartHandler` call `newUnsignedV4ChunkedReader` with a signature verification gate based solely on the presence of the `Authorization` header. Meanwhile, `isPutActionAllowed` extracts credentials from either the `Authorization` header or the `X-Amz-Credential` query parameter, and trusts whichever it finds. An attacker omits the `Authorization` header and supplies credentials exclusively via the query string. The signature gate evaluates to `false`, `doesSignatureMatch` is never called, and the request proceeds with the permissions of the impersonated access key. This affects `PutObjectHandler` (standard and tables/warehouse bucket paths) and `PutObjectPartHandler` (multipart uploads). Users of the open-source `minio/minio` project should upgrade to MinIO AIStor `RELEASE.2026-04-11T03-20-12Z` or later. If upgrading is not immediately possible, block unsigned-trailer requests at the load balancer. Reject any request containing `X-Amz-Content-Sha256: STREAMING-UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD-TRAILER` at the reverse proxy or WAF layer. Clients can use `STREAMING-AWS4-HMAC-SHA256-PAYLOAD-TRAILER` (the signed variant) instead. Alternatively, restrict WRITE permissions. Limit `s3:PutObject` grants to trusted principals. While this reduces the attack surface, it does not eliminate the vulnerability since any user with WRITE permission can exploit it with only their access key.