Policy bypass via case-insensitive JSON key matching
Published Feb 26, 2026 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Improper case handling in Model Context Protocol Go SDK before 1.3.1 allows remote attackers to bypass exact-key inspection via malformed JSON. The JSON-RPC and MCP decoders pass untrusted messages to encoding/json.Unmarshal, which matches JSON keys to tagged Go struct fields without exact case and folds certain Unicode characters to ASCII equivalents. A malicious MCP peer must reach an SDK-based client or server; accepted alternate spellings can evade exact-name policy layers and change how downstream components interpret the message.
Summary
What happened
Improper case handling in Model Context Protocol Go SDK before 1.3.1 allows remote attackers to bypass exact-key inspection via malformed JSON. The JSON-RPC and MCP decoders pass untrusted messages to encoding/json.Unmarshal, which matches JSON keys to tagged Go struct fields without exact case and folds certain Unicode characters to ASCII equivalents. A malicious MCP peer must reach an SDK-based client or server; accepted alternate spellings can evade exact-name policy layers and change how downstream components interpret the message.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-27896
- Published
- Feb 26, 2026
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Model Context Protocol
- Product
- Go SDK
- Classifications
- CWE-436, CWE-178
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 26, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 1.3.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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