CVE-2026-10050 Eclipse CVE debrief

Who should care

Organizations using Eclipse Jetty for authentication should be aware of this vulnerability and take steps to mitigate it. This includes assessing their Jetty usage, applying patches, and implementing compensating controls.

Technical summary

Eclipse Jetty's Digest authentication server-side component uses ISO-8859-1 to encode passwords. If a password contains characters that cannot be represented in ISO-8859-1, they are silently replaced by `?`. An attacker can exploit this by sending a crafted digest `Authorization` header with a password made of only `?` characters, potentially matching any password of the same length with non-ISO-8859-1 characters. The issue is addressed in Jetty versions 9.4.64, 10.0.32, 11.0.32, 12.0.37, and 12.1.11 and above, which support the `charset` parameter in HTTP Digest authentication as per RFC-7616.

Defensive priority

CVE-2026-10050 is rated HIGH with a CVSS score of 8.7. Organizations using affected Jetty versions should prioritize patching.

Recommended defensive actions

• Inventory and assess Jetty usage, focusing on versions 9.4.0 to 9.4.63, 10.0.0 to 10.0.31, 11.0.0 to 11.0.31, 12.0.0 to 12.0.36, and 12.1.0 to 12.1.10.
• Apply patches or updates to Jetty versions 9.4.64, 10.0.32, 11.0.32, 12.0.37, or 12.1.11 and above.
• Implement compensating controls such as Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) to detect and prevent exploitation attempts.
• Monitor for suspicious authentication attempts and adjust access controls as necessary.
• Review and update password policies to ensure strong, unique passwords are used.

Evidence notes

The CVE description notes that Eclipse Jetty's Digest authentication server-side component uses ISO-8859-1 to encode passwords, which can lead to silent replacement of non-ISO-8859-1 characters with `?`. An attacker can exploit this by sending a crafted digest `Authorization` header with a password made of only `?` characters, potentially matching any password of the same length with non-ISO-8859-1 characters. Recent HTTP Digest RFC-7616 supports a `charset` parameter that defaults to UTF-8 for correct encoding/decoding of passwords.

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.