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TI-2026-38730 Aliases CVE-2026-53708GHSA-9hgc-g3w5-67cm

ContextForge: DNS TOCTOU race condition causes SSRF protection bypass (`/admin/gateways/test`)

Priority MEDIUM 62CWE-350Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
High
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
High
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · Low · None
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.

Summary

ContextForge is an AI gateway, registry, and proxy that provides centralized discovery, guardrails, and management for MCP, A2A, and REST or gRPC APIs. Prior to 1.0.3, the /admin/gateways/test call site in mcpgateway/admin.py calls validate_gateway_test_url() in mcpgateway/common/validators.py to resolve and reject private, loopback, link-local, and cloud-metadata addresses, but ResilientHttpClient later resolves the original hostname again without binding the validated address. When MCPGATEWAY_ADMIN_API_ENABLED is enabled, an attacker with a database-backed role containing explicit gateways.read permission can use DNS rebinding to return a public address during validation and a private or metadata address during connection, bypassing ssrf_blocked_networks and ssrf_dns_fail_closed because those controls apply only to the validation-time result. The endpoint's allow_admin_bypass=False setting means a bootstrap-only virtual platform-admin identity without a database role is not sufficient. Successful exploitation can reach internal services and cloud metadata, expose cloud credentials, access internal APIs, or probe internal network ports. This issue is fixed in version 1.0.3.

Why it matters now

Exploitation Proof of concept CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.0035 28th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed mcp-context-forge (IBM): 1.0.3mcp-contextforge-gateway (IBM): 1.0.3+1 more product

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
Poc
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
IBMmcp-context-forgebefore 1.0.31.0.3Patch availableCNA
IBMmcp-contextforge-gatewaybefore 1.0.31.0.3Patch availableCNA
—mcp-contextforge-gateway (PyPI)before 1.0.31.0.3Patch availableGHSA-9hgc-g3w5-67cm
  • mcp-context-forge VendorIBM Affected before 1.0.3 Fixed in 1.0.3 Patch available CNA
  • mcp-contextforge-gateway VendorIBM Affected before 1.0.3 Fixed in 1.0.3 Patch available CNA
  • mcp-contextforge-gateway (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 1.0.3 Fixed in 1.0.3 Patch available GHSA-9hgc-g3w5-67cm

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA mcp-context-forge (IBM) Fixed in 1.0.3
  • Fix · CNA mcp-contextforge-gateway (IBM) Fixed in 1.0.3
  • Fix · GHSA-9hgc-g3w5-67cm mcp-contextforge-gateway (PyPI) Fixed in 1.0.3 Advisory →

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-53708
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-9hgc-g3w5-67cm

References

Other 4

  • TI-2026-08085 Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution via Auto-Login Bypass and Code Validation KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2022-23774 IBM Aspera Faspex code execution KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2020-03794 Improper authentication in IBM Data Risk Manager KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2019-03441 Code injection in IBM Planning Analytics KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2017-03639 Improper handling of exceptional conditions in Apache Struts KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2015-06198 Serialized-object interfaces in certain IBM analytics, business solutions, cognitive, IT… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
See all 9711 →

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences