CVE-2023-26468 in Cerebrate
Summary
by MITRE • 02/24/2023
Cerebrate 1.12 does not properly consider organisation_id during creation of API keys.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/10/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-26468 affects Cerebrate version 1.12 and represents a critical authorization flaw that undermines the system's ability to properly enforce organizational boundaries during API key creation processes. This issue stems from insufficient validation of the organization_id parameter, which is essential for maintaining proper segregation of duties and data isolation within multi-tenant environments. The flaw allows unauthorized API key creation that bypasses normal organizational access controls, potentially enabling malicious actors to escalate privileges or gain unauthorized access to resources belonging to other organizations within the same system instance.
This vulnerability manifests as a failure in the application's input validation mechanisms, specifically during the API key generation workflow where the system does not adequately verify or enforce the organization_id context. The technical implementation appears to lack proper access control checks that would normally ensure API keys are created within the appropriate organizational scope. This weakness directly relates to CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization in software systems, and can be classified as an authorization bypass vulnerability that permits unauthorized access to organizational resources. The flaw represents a significant deviation from secure coding practices and proper privilege management protocols that should be enforced at all levels of the application architecture.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, potentially enabling attackers to perform lateral movement within the system and compromise multiple organizational domains simultaneously. An attacker who can exploit this vulnerability gains the ability to create API keys that operate outside their designated organizational boundaries, effectively breaking down the multi-tenant security model that Cerebrate is designed to maintain. This weakness can be leveraged to execute various malicious activities including data exfiltration, privilege escalation, and unauthorized system modifications. The vulnerability can be particularly dangerous in cloud environments or shared infrastructure scenarios where multiple organizations rely on the platform for their operations and data protection.
From a threat modeling perspective, this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and credential access, as it enables unauthorized access through legitimate API key creation mechanisms. The exploitability of this flaw depends on the attacker's ability to gain initial access to the system and then leverage the improperly validated organization_id parameter to create malicious API keys. Mitigation strategies should include immediate patching of the Cerebrate application to version 1.13 or later, which presumably contains the necessary fixes for proper organization_id validation. Additionally, organizations should implement comprehensive monitoring of API key creation activities and establish strict audit trails to detect unauthorized key generation. Network segmentation and additional access controls should be enforced to limit the potential impact of any successful exploitation attempts, while regular security assessments should verify that all organization boundaries are properly enforced throughout the system architecture.