🛡️ CVE-2026-40172 — authentik

🟠 CVSS 8.1 — High ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
8.1
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

authentik: Privilege Escalation via User PATCH: Superuser Group Assignment Bypasses enable_group_superuser

authentik is an open-source identity provider. In versions prior to 2025.12.5 and 2026.2.0 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.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity high, availability high.

Affected software

CVE-2026-40172 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • authentik
  • unknown

Timeline and source

Published on 1 June 2026 and last revised on 8 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com (Web)
github.com (Web)
github.com (Web)
nvd.nist.gov (Web)

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 8.1
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2026-06-01
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-07-08
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
authentik — —
unknown — —

Similar Threats

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