CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-40172

HighCVSS 8.1
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.54%

42th percentile - higher than 42% of all known CVEs

Summary

In authentik prior to versions 2025.12.5 and 2026.2.3, the PATCH /api/v3/core/users/{pk}/ API allows a caller with change_user permission to assign arbitrary groups, including groups with is_superuser=True, without requiring enable_group_superuser, leading to privilege escalation.

Risk Assessment

A user with delegated user management permissions can add themselves or others to the superadmin group, gaining full control over the system.

Recommendation

Upgrade authentik to version 2025.12.5 or 2026.2.3.

Other vulnerabilities in authentik

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

authentik is an open-source identity provider. In versions prior to 2025.12.5 and 2026.2.0-rc1 through 2026.2.2, the PATCH /api/v3/core/users/{pk}/ API allows a caller with change_user on a target user to assign arbitrary groups through UserSerializer, including groups with is_superuser=True, without requiring enable_group_superuser, leading to privilege escalation. This bypasses the stricter permission model enforced in group-management paths and enables delegated user-management permissions to escalate target users to administrator-equivalent privilege. Users with permissions to update groups or permissions to update users are able to add themselves or other users they have permissions on to users which have superuser permissions. This issue has been fixed in versions 22025.12.5 and 2026.2.3.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS