CVE-2026-1531
Published: 02 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-1531 is a high-severity Improper Certificate Validation (CWE-295) vulnerability in Redhat (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Adversary-in-the-Middle (T1557); ranked at the 16.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and SC-17 (Public Key Infrastructure Certificates).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-1531 is a vulnerability in the foreman_kubevirt component, part of Red Hat Satellite's integration with OpenShift. The flaw occurs when configuring the connection to OpenShift: if a Certificate Authority (CA) certificate is not explicitly set, the system disables SSL verification by default. This misconfiguration exposes connections to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, as classified under CWE-295 (Improper Certificate Validation), with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N).
A remote attacker capable of intercepting network traffic between a vulnerable Satellite instance and OpenShift can exploit this to perform a MITM attack. Exploitation requires low privileges (PR:L) and no user interaction, allowing the attacker to achieve high confidentiality and integrity impacts by disclosing or altering sensitive information transmitted over the connection, such as authentication credentials or configuration data.
Red Hat has issued multiple advisories addressing this issue, including RHSA-2026:5968, RHSA-2026:5970, and RHSA-2026:5971, which provide updated packages for affected Satellite versions. Security practitioners should review the official CVE page at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-1531 and the associated Bugzilla entry at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2433786 for patch details, verification steps, and upgrade instructions to enable proper CA certificate validation.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-5117
Vulnerability details
A flaw was found in foreman_kubevirt. When configuring the connection to OpenShift, the system disables SSL verification if a Certificate Authority (CA) certificate is not explicitly set. This insecure default allows a remote attacker, capable of intercepting network traffic between…
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Satellite and OpenShift, to perform a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack. Such an attack could lead to the disclosure or alteration of sensitive information.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Vulnerability disables SSL certificate validation by default, directly enabling MITM interception and manipulation of traffic (Adversary-in-the-Middle).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires establishment and implementation of procedures for PKI certificate validation, directly preventing the disablement of SSL verification without explicit CA configuration in foreman_kubevirt.
Mandates cryptographic protection for transmission confidentiality and integrity, mitigating MITM attacks on unverified Satellite-OpenShift connections.
Enforces secure configuration settings that require explicit CA certificate validation, countering the insecure default in foreman_kubevirt.