Kong Gateway: Cache key flaw exposes responses across hostnames
Summary
The proxy-cache and proxy-cache-advanced plugins in Kong Gateway Enterprise and Kong AI Gateway leave the request hostname out of the cache key. A response cached for one hostname can therefore be served for another hostname on the same gateway. An attacker who can send requests to the gateway may receive cached data that belongs to a different host, which is a confidentiality impact. The CNA rates the issue CVSS 4.0 8.7 (High) and states that no authentication or user interaction is needed, but the exact exposure depends on whether the affected plugins are enabled.
Affected
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.10.0.0 to before 3.10.0.20
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.13.0.0 to before 3.13.0.12
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.14.0.0 to before 3.14.0.17
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.15.0.0 to before 3.15.0.7
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.16.0.0 to before 3.16.0.2
- Kong AI Gateway 2.2.0 to before 2.2.1
- Affected plugins: proxy-cache and proxy-cache-advanced
- Status of Enterprise 3.11.x and 3.12.x: Unknown.
- Status of open-source Kong Gateway: Unknown.
Fixed in
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.10.0.20
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.13.0.12
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.14.0.17
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.15.0.7
- Kong Gateway Enterprise 3.16.0.2
- Kong AI Gateway 2.2.1
Workaround
Unknown. No vendor workaround is published.
Exploitation
- Not known to be exploited in the wild.
- No public proof of concept found.
- Not listed in CISA KEV according to aggregators; the CISA catalogue was not checked directly.
Our recommendation
- Inventory all Kong Enterprise and AI Gateway deployments and their versions.
- Check whether proxy-cache or proxy-cache-advanced is enabled and which hostnames share the gateway.
- Upgrade to the fixed versions, starting with internet-facing gateways.
- If patching cannot happen quickly, disable the affected plugins on multi-hostname routes and flush existing cache entries (our interim suggestion, not vendor-confirmed).
- Ask Kong for the status of versions 3.11.x and 3.12.x and of the open-source edition.
- Recheck NVD and CISA KEV once NVD analysis is complete.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- CVE Record CVE-2026-92545 (CNA Kong) www.cve.org
- Kong Gateway changelog developer.konghq.com
- Kong AI Gateway changelog developer.konghq.com
- CVE-2026-92545 summary (threatint) cve.threatint.com
- CVE-2026-92545 summary (Strix) www.strix.ai
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 11 Nov 2026, 00:55.
Original description (NVD)
The proxy-cache and proxy-cache-advanced plugins in Kong Gateway Enterprise and Kong AI Gateway omit the request hostname from the cache key which may allow a response cached for a hostname to be served for another.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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