Ceph is an open-source distributed storage platform providing object, block, and file storage

Overview

Ceph is an open-source distributed storage platform providing object, block, and file storage. In versions prior to 20.2.4 and 19.2.6, the RADOS Gateway (RGW) protects STS session tokens with an AES-128-CBC handler that provides no message authentication, allowing an attacker who holds any valid STS token to tamper with it undetected and escalate to full RGW administrative access. Because the ciphertext is unauthenticated, the attacker can perform a CBC bit-flip on the acct_type, perm_type, and is_admin fields of their own token, and a forged is_admin value triggers a global administrative override that bypasses all capability checks. The attack is reachable remotely over the RGW S3 endpoint and is a self-contained modification of a token the attacker already possesses, requiring no encryption oracle and no network observation. It requires only a single valid STS token, which need not carry any elevated privileges, with STS enabled. This issue is fixed in versions 20.2.4 and 19.2.6.

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

Vendor advisories

• RHSA-2026:79101 · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat Ceph Storage 8.1 Tools · released 2026-10-08 · advisory
• RHSA-2026:79243 · Red Hat · fixed in: Red Hat Ceph Storage 8.1 · released 2026-10-08 · advisory
• Red Hat VEX · Important · affected: Red Hat Ceph Storage 4, Red Hat Ceph Storage 5, Red Hat Ceph Storage 6, Red Hat Ceph Storage 7, Red Hat Ceph Storage 9 · no fix planned: Red Hat Ceph Storage 4, Red Hat Ceph Storage 5, Red Hat Ceph Storage 6, Red Hat Ceph Storage 7, … · updated 2026-10-09 · vex