---
title: "CVE-2026-88021: Consul - Authorization Bypass"
description: "Consul and Consul Enterprise contain an authorization bypass caused by improper escaping of characters in service names, namespaces, and partitions in Connect service mesh, letting unauthorized services access restricted destinations, exploit requires crafted service names."
url: https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/CVE-2026-88021/
---

# CVE-2026-88021 Consul - Authorization Bypass

Consul and Consul Enterprise contain an authorization bypass caused by improper escaping of characters in service names, namespaces, and partitions in Connect service mesh, letting unauthorized services access restricted destinations, exploit requires crafted service names.

CVSS base score 7.1 /10

High

CISA KEV

Not listed

Public exploit

None known

EPSS

0.34% chance of exploitation in 30 days

[View the NVD record ↗](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-88021)

## Details

Type

Authorization Bypass

Impact

Broken Access Control, Information Disclosure

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

Published

10 September 2026

Updated

15 October 2026

Weakness

[CWE-185](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/185.html)

## Vendor fix

Update to Consul 2.0.4 and Consul Enterprise 1.21.18, 1.22.12, 2.0.4 or later.

Patching closes this CVE. It does not tell you which of your systems run the affected version, or what else is exposed alongside them.

## References

- [https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-88021](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-88021)
- [https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2026-37-consul-vulnerable-to-an-authorization-bypass-in-the-connect-service-mesh/77739](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2026-37-consul-vulnerable-to-an-authorization-bypass-in-the-connect-service-mesh/77739)

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## What this record can't tell you

- Whether you run the affected software, and where
- Whether an attacker can actually reach and exploit it
- The misconfigurations that never get a CVE number
- What it would cost the business, ranked into what to fix first

Panop answers these inside your environment, for this CVE and every other finding.

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