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CVE-2026-81516: Steeltoe.Discovery.Consul: malformed 'secure' metadata aborts service instance lookup (DoS)

GitHub Advisories · officialPublished Sep 17, 2026Risk 37/100

## Summary Steeltoe's Consul discovery client parses the `secure` metadata field on each registered service instance using `bool.Parse`, which throws on any value other than `true` or `false`. A single service instance registered with a malformed `secure` value (for example `yes` or `1`) aborts construction of the entire instance list for that service, making the service undiscoverable. When `GetAllInstancesAsync` is used, one malformed instance in any service can abort enumeration across all services. This is the same "one malformed field aborts the whole batch" availability class as [CVE-2026-50196](https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-j8ph-6fxj-g533), but affecting the Consul discovery client. ## Impact Any principal that can register a service in the Consul catalog can trigger a service-discovery outage for all Steeltoe applications resolving that service. The outage affects all instances of the targeted service — not just the malformed one — and persists until the offending registration is removed. ## Affected configuration - Application uses `ConsulDiscoveryClient` (any deployment). - The Consul catalog contains at least one service instance with a `secure` metadata value that is not `true` or `false`. - Mixed-platform environments where non-.NET clients register services with non-standard metadata values are more likely to encounter this condition. ## Mitigations If an immediate upgrade is not possible: - Audit the Consul catalog for service registrations with non-standard `secure` metadata values. - Restrict write access to the Consul service registration API to trusted services.

Upgrade affected packages to a patched version: Steeltoe.Discovery.Consul 4.3.0.

Vendor
Not specified
Product
Steeltoe.Discovery.Consul
Exploitation
none known
Evidence
official
CVSS
7.5

This record is attributed to GitHub Advisories. Exploitation status and remediation guidance are kept separate from the vulnerability's technical severity.

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