CVE-2026-88008

## Summary There is a high-severity request-smuggling vulnerability in Traefik's handling of the HTTP/1.1 `Upgrade` mechanism. Since Traefik moved to unencrypted HTTP/2 with prior knowledge (Go 1.24), a client-initiated `Upgrade: h2c` request header and its connection-specific `HTTP2-Settings` header were forwarded to the backend. A backend that honours the h2c upgrade and answers `101 Switching Protocols` puts Traefik into a raw byte tunnel that bypasses the router and the entire middleware chain (authentication, IPAllowList, rate limiting) on a shared backend. The fix stops forwarding the `Upgrade: h2c` token and the `HTTP2-Settings` header; `Upgrade: websocket` is unaffected. Exploitation requires a backend that upgrades h2c without validating the `Connection` listing; common off-the-shelf servers were not exploitable in testing. Traefik v3.4.2 through v3.6 are end-of-life and are also affected; users on those versions must upgrade to v3.7.13. ## Patches - https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v2.11.57 - https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.13 ## For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please [open an issue](https://github.com/traefik/traefik/issues). <details> <summary>Original Description</summary> # Summary Traefik's default HTTP reverse proxy forwards arbitrary `Connection: Upgrade` / `Upgrade: <token>` requests to the backend. Upgrade tokens are not restricted to protocols explicitly supported by Traefik. This is exploitable when a backend accepts a non-WebSocket upgrade such as `h2c` and responds with `101 Switching Protocols`. Traefik then switches the connection into a raw byte tunnel and stops applying the HTTP routing/middleware chain. An attacker can abuse an unprotected router pointing to the backend to establish the tunnel, then send HTTP/2 requests to other paths on the same backend. Those requests bypass the Traefik router and are therefore not subject to middleware attach