CVE-2026-5545

wrong reuse of HTTP Negotiate connection

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: May 13, 2026 at 08:27 AM UTC
Updated: September 15, 2026 at 07:35 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorCurl

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Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

libcurl might in some circumstances reuse the wrong connection when asked to do an authenticated HTTP(S) request after a Negotiate-authenticated one, when both use the same host. libcurl features a pool of recent connections so that subsequent requests can reuse an existing connection to avoid overhead. When reusing a connection a range of criteria must be met. Due to a logical error in the code, a request that was issued by an application could wrongfully reuse an existing connection to the same server that was authenticated using different credentials. An application that first uses Negotiate authentication to a server with `user1:password1` and then does another operation to the same server asking for any authentication method but for `user2:password2` (while the previous connection is still alive) - the second request gets confused and wrongly reuses the same connection and sends the new request over that connection thinking it uses a mix of user1's and user2's credentials when it is in fact still using the connection authenticated for user1...

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Vendor states this is fixed in 33e43985b8f3b9e66691d06e70be0395849856cd (fixed)
Affected range stops below 8.14.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 8.16.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 8.20.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (3)

Vendor Advisory
Source: cverecord
https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2026-5545.json
PatchVendor Advisory
Source: cverecord
https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2026-5545.html
ExploitIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
Source: cverecord
https://hackerone.com/reports/3642555

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

6.5MEDIUMCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-613CWE-305

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