The flaw lies in Calico's Application Layer Policy component, Dikastes, which fails to normalize HTTP URLs before evaluating prefix path rules. Consequently, requests that include path‑traversal segments, encoded slashes, or repeated slashes pass the policy authorization unaltered. The downstream workload or fronting proxy then normalizes the URL and serves the restricted endpoint, allowing attackers to reach HTTP resources that should have been blocked. Based on the description, it is inferred that the attacker gains unauthorized access to protected endpoints, potentially exposing data that the policy was meant to protect.

The affected products are Tigera Calico, Calico Cloud, and Calico Enterprise. No specific version ranges are disclosed, so any installation that enabled Application Layer Policy could be vulnerable until a patch is applied.

The CVSS score of 7.9 indicates high severity, while the EPSS score is below 1 %, reflecting a very low but non‑zero exploitation probability. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. Attackers only need network access to the Calico‑managed host and no special RBAC privileges. By constructing HTTP requests containing path‑traversal or encoded slash sequences, an attacker can exploit the lack of URL normalisation and bypass the layer‑7 policy.