Compliance Impact

The vulnerability allows attackers to completely bypass authentication in Apache APISIX under certain configurations of the jwt-auth plugin.

Such an authentication bypass can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data or systems, which may result in non-compliance with common standards and regulations like GDPR and HIPAA that require strict access controls and protection of personal or health information.

Therefore, if exploited, this vulnerability could compromise compliance by exposing protected data or systems to unauthorized users.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 3.17.0 (or 3.16.1 as per Resource 2) to fix the issue and mitigate compliance risks.

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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-39999 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache APISIX that arises due to a JWT algorithm confusion issue.

Attackers can exploit certain configurations of the jwt-auth plugin to completely bypass authentication, allowing unauthorized access.

This affects Apache APISIX versions from 2.2 through 3.16.0.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows attackers to bypass authentication entirely, potentially granting them unauthorized access to protected resources or services managed by Apache APISIX.

Such unauthorized access can lead to data exposure, manipulation, or disruption of services.

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Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate the authentication bypass vulnerability in Apache APISIX, users should upgrade their Apache APISIX installation to version 3.17.0 or later, where the issue is fixed.

This vulnerability affects versions from 2.2 through 3.16.0, so upgrading beyond these versions is critical to prevent exploitation.

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