CVE-2026-50200: Steeltoe's env sanitizer misses connection strings — leaks embedded DB passwords

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-06-17 · updated 2026-06-22
Weakness: CWE-200

Description

Steeltoe is an open source project that provides a collection of libraries that helps users build cloud-native applications. In Steeltoe.Management.Endpoint prior to version 4.2.0 and Steeltoe.Management.EndpointCore prior to version 3.4.0, the `Sanitizer` component in the Environment actuator redacts configuration values by matching the configuration key name against a suffix list. The default list (`password`, `secret`, `key`, `token`, `.*credentials.*`, `vcap_services`) does not cover the standard .NET pattern `ConnectionStrings:<name>` or Steeltoe Connectors' `Steeltoe:Client:<type>:Default:ConnectionString`. There is no value-based scrubbing, so full connection string values including embedded `Password=` and `user:pass@host` segments are returned verbatim in `/actuator/env` responses. Steeltoe.Management.Endpoint 4.2.0 and Steeltoe.Management.EndpointCore 3.4.0 patch the issue. If an immediate upgrade is not possible: On the standard path, remove `env` from the actuator exposure list; add `.*connectionstring.*` to `KeysToSanitize` as a defense-in-depth measure for both paths; and/or require authorization on actuator endpoints.

Affected products

SteeltoeOSS Steeltoe.Management.Endpoint: before 4.2.0
SteeltoeOSS Steeltoe.Management.EndpointCore: before 3.4.0

References

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