CVE-2026-110178IBM ContextForge MCP Gateway improper access control
CVE-2026-110178 is a improper access control in IBM ContextForge MCP Gateway, rated medium (4.1 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: Medium severity, with no exploitation signal.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Awaiting Analysis
What it is
Access to a resource or action is not restricted to the people meant to have it.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, with an administrator account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
The direct impact is limited: partial access to data or a partial outage. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker reach data or actions their role should not allow. The damage can spread past the vulnerable component into others.
Is it being exploited?
There is no public report of exploitation yet.
What to do
- No fixed version is listed yet. Find every place IBM ContextForge MCP Gateway runs, watch the references for a fix, and plan a replacement if it is no longer supported.
- While there is no fix, review who holds accounts that can reach it.
Description from NVD
IBM ContextForge MCP Gateway 1.0.0 through 1.0.11 is vulnerable to improper access control in the bulk import path. A remote authenticated attacker holding a team-scoped `admin.import` permission can overwrite the endpoint URL, request headers, and authentication credentials of public tools, resources, and prompts owned by other tenants by sending a crafted POST request to `/v1/import` with `conflict_strategy=update`, redirecting subsequent AI gateway invocations to an attacker-controlled host.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Network edge devices: VPNs, firewalls, routers and gateways. They sit between the internet and internal networks, so a flaw in one is often the first step into everything behind it.
- Permission checks in APIs and admin surfaces. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
- Multi-tenant services. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
Trust boundaries in play
- Authenticated network access. An account is needed, so exposure follows who can sign in: customers, partners or staff.
- Isolation between components. The impact crosses out of the vulnerable component into others it should be isolated from.
- Between one role or tenant and another. An attacker who crosses it can reach data or actions their role should not allow.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does IBM ContextForge MCP Gateway run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.