steeltoeoss/steeltoe · Security
Steeltoe's env sanitizer misses connection strings — leaks embedded DB passwords
- GHSA ID
- GHSA-q62h-354g-5r85
- CVE ID
- CVE-2026-50200
- Severity
- high
- Published
- Updated
- CVSS
- 7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- CVSS v3
- 7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Description
Summary
The Sanitizer component in the Environment actuator redacts configuration values by matching the configuration key name against a suffix list. The default list (password, secret, key, token, .*credentials.*, vcap_services) does not cover the standard .NET pattern ConnectionStrings:<name> or Steeltoe Connectors' Steeltoe:Client:<type>:Default:ConnectionString. There is no value-based scrubbing, so full connection string values including embedded Password= and user:pass@host segments are returned verbatim in /actuator/env responses.
Impact
Any caller who can reach /actuator/env can receive connection strings containing plaintext credentials. Those credentials enable direct connection to the backing database, bypassing the application tier.
Affected configuration
- Application configuration contains credentials in
ConnectionStrings:*or*:ConnectionStringkeys. - On standard deployments:
envis added toManagement:Endpoints:Actuator:Exposure:Include. This is not the default. - On Cloud Foundry: the
/cloudfoundryapplication/envpath is accessible to any authenticated CF user withread_basic_datapermissions (Space Auditor and above) regardless of the exposure configuration.
Mitigations
If an immediate upgrade is not possible:
- On the standard path, remove
envfrom the actuator exposure list. - Add
.*connectionstring.*toKeysToSanitizeas a defense-in-depth measure for both paths. - Require authorization on actuator endpoints.
CWEs
- CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
- CWE-319 · Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
References
- https://github.com/SteeltoeOSS/security-advisories/security/advisories/GHSA-q62h-354g-5r85 ↗
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-50200 ↗
- https://github.com/SteeltoeOSS/Steeltoe/commit/bef9f14b710232fca3fbe87e48fdd1b9e6b60d43 ↗
- https://github.com/SteeltoeOSS/Steeltoe/commit/e50cd31a429b191841120f0d38fa9dda8f751b0a ↗
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-q62h-354g-5r85 ↗