High severity · published Mar 4, 2026
CVE-2026-2836
Cache poisoning via insecure-by-default cache key
8.1
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
A cache poisoning vulnerability has been found in the Pingora HTTP proxy framework’s default cache key construction. The issue occurs because the default HTTP cache key implementation generates cache keys using only the URI path, excluding critical factors such as the host header (authority). Operators relying on the default are vulnerable to cache poisoning, and cross-origin responses may be improperly served to users.
Impact
This vulnerability affects users of Pingora's alpha proxy caching feature who relied on the default CacheKey implementation. An attacker could exploit this for:
* Cross-tenant data leakage: In multi-tenant deployments, poison the cache so that users from one tenant receive cached responses from another tenant
* Cache poisoning attacks: Serve malicious content to legitimate users by poisoning shared cache entries
Cloudflare's CDN infrastructure was not affected by this vulnerability, as Cloudflare's default cache key implementation uses multiple factors to prevent cache key poisoning and never made use of the previously provided default.
Mitigation:
We strongly recommend Pingora users to upgrade to Pingora v0.8.0 or higher, which removes the insecure default cache key implementation. Users must now explicitly implement their own callback that includes appropriate factors such as Host header, origin server HTTP scheme, and other attributes their cache should vary on.
Pingora users on previous versions may also remove any of their default CacheKey usage and implement their own that should at minimum include the host header / authority and upstream peer’s HTTP scheme.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 35% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
HT
https://github.com/cloudflare/pingora · Cloudflare
before 0.8.0 · source: vendor
PI
Pingora · Cloudflare
before 0.8.0 · source: NVD
Affected product
HT
https://github.com/cloudflare/pingora
Cloudflare
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-2836
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-2836
Product
https://github.com/cloudflare/pingora
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