CVE
Busybox: httpd password rule bypass for pre-compressed .gz files via accept-encoding: gzip
- Exploited
- No known exploitation
- Fix
- See vendor advisory
- Who is exposed
- Not reported
- Last modified
- Whether it needs action now or is a reference record, by fixed rules, with why. Last checked is when cve.now last re-read it.What do these mean? →
- Reference
- Last checked
- A 0-100 score for how much a CVE matters across the industry: exploitation, exposure, how widely the software is used, severity and whether a fix exists.What do these mean? →
- 37/100 · provisional
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
BusyBox's httpd web server, as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Hardened Images, checks passwords against the requested path rather than the pre-compressed file it actually serves. A remote attacker, without logging in, can request an uncompressed path with gzip encoding to get past password rules set for the compressed file and read sensitive files.
Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.
Read the original description
A flaw was found in BusyBox. When the HTTP daemon (httpd) has pre-compressed file support enabled, authentication checks are evaluated only against the requested URL path rather than the pre-compressed file being served. A remote attacker can exploit this flaw by requesting an uncompressed file path while specifying gzip encoding, bypassing password rules configured specifically for the compressed file. This vulnerability can lead to unauthorized information disclosure of sensitive files.
cve.now Index
- Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
- Exposure17/25No login or user action needed per the CVSS vector, reachable over the network without a login · Unknown: No advisory context yet
- Reach10/20Shipped in major Linux distributions
- Severity5.3/10CVSS 5.3
- No patch5/5No fixed version listed; see vendor advisory
What would change the score
- Would score about 82 if added to CISA KEV
- Would score about 77 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
- Would score about 42 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed
Check your systems with an agent
Paste this into a coding or ops agent. It checks your systems read-only and reports a table per asset.
Check whether my systems are affected by CVE-2026-124738 (Busybox: httpd password rule bypass for pre-compressed .gz files via accept-encoding: gzip), using the cve.now data below.
Rules: work read-only. Do not run exploit code, proof-of-concept scripts or scanners that send attack payloads, and do not change any configuration, package, image or deployment. Report findings only.
What cve.now has for CVE-2026-124738 (entry last updated 2026-11-11):
Affected:
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6: version range not reported
- Red Hat Red Hat Hardened Images: version range not reported
Fixed versions: none listed yet.
Setup: unknown whether the bug needs a non-default feature or setting. Check the advisory.
CISA KEV: CVE-2026-124738 is not listed as of cve.now's last read.
This KEV status is for CVE-2026-124738 only. If you also check another CVE, look up its own KEV status; never assume it from this one.
How to check:
- Installed software: check what is actually running, not what a repo declares. Read the version from each host, container image and Kubernetes node (the binary's version output, the OS package database, image layers), and check whether the conditions above hold there. Distribution packages may carry a backported fix under an older version number; confirm against the distribution's own advisory.
Verify against the linked advisories before concluding, and cite the date you read each one:
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2571610
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-124738
Do not conclude an asset is unaffected unless you checked it and the evidence covers both its version and the conditions above. If you could not check something, mark it unknown and say what is missing.
Report a table with one row per asset and these columns: Asset | Version or build | Status (affected, fixed, not applicable, unknown) | Compensating controls | Exposure (internet-facing, internal, none) | Evidence | Next action.
Entry: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-124738
For follow-up questions, use the cve.now MCP server at https://mcp.cve.now/mcp (no authentication), for example execute with name cve.get and arguments {"id": "CVE-2026-124738"}.Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
- Record last updated
Affected versions
- busybox
Version range not reported
- busybox
Version range not reported
Evidence 4
CVE record · 2
Establishes: The identifier and description.
- Record
- Record
Write-ups · 1
Establishes: Technical detail and context.
- Report
Other links · 1
- Link
Corrections
None so far.
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