CVE-2026-118658
Description
A flaw was found in the Echo web framework. When handling incoming requests, the framework fails to validate forwarded protocol headers before using them to construct redirect responses. A remote attacker capable of controlling these headers could trigger redirects using an arbitrary Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme, potentially facilitating phishing or unexpected client-side behavior when a user interacts with the response.
Statement
Red Hat rates the impact of this vulnerability as Moderate because exploitation requires the application to actively implement non-default redirect middleware and depends on user interaction to trigger client-side redirection. In typical deployment topologies where applications reside behind trusted ingress controllers or reverse proxies that overwrite forwarded headers, exposure to untrusted header injection is substantially minimized. Furthermore, redirect middleware variants enforcing HTTPS explicitly hardcode the protocol and remain unaffected.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Access Control
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
The user may be redirected to an untrusted page that contains malware which may then compromise the user's system. In some cases, an open redirect can also enable the immediate download of a file without the user's permission, because the redirection to an external site may lead to endpoints on those sites that automatically trigger a download action ("drive-by download" [REF-1478]). This will expose the user to extensive risk. The user's interaction with the web server may also be compromised if the malware conducts keylogging or other attacks that steal credentials, personally identifiable information (PII), or other important data.
Access Control,Confidentiality,Other
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Other
By modifying the URL value to a malicious site, an attacker may successfully launch a phishing scam. The user may be subjected to phishing attacks by being redirected to an untrusted page. The phishing attack may point to an attacker controlled web page that appears to be a trusted web site. The phishers may then steal the user's credentials and then use these credentials to access the legitimate web site. Because the server name in the modified link is identical to the original site, phishing attempts can appear more trustworthy.
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