CVE-2026-116806 in OpenPanel
Summary
by MITRE • 10/27/2026
OpenPanel before 3.0.0 contains a missing authorization vulnerability in the onboarding.project tRPC mutation that allows non-admin organization members to create projects and mint write-type ingestion credentials, bypassing the admin-only policy. Attackers can repeatedly call the endpoint with a member session to obtain plaintext secrets, inject fake analytics events, poison business metrics, and consume the organization's usage budget.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/27/2026
The vulnerability identified in OpenPanel versions prior to 3.0.0 represents a critical failure in server-side access control mechanisms within its tRPC API layer. Specifically, the onboarding.project mutation endpoint lacks proper authorization checks for non-administrative users belonging to an organization. In secure software architecture, operations that modify organizational structure or generate sensitive credentials must be strictly gated behind role-based access controls (RBAC). However, in this instance, the backend logic fails to verify whether the authenticated user possesses the necessary administrative privileges before executing the mutation. This oversight allows any authenticated member of an organization, regardless of their assigned role or permission level, to invoke functions that are explicitly intended for administrators only. The flaw stems from a missing check on the server side rather than a client-side restriction, meaning that even if the frontend interface hides these options from regular users, direct API calls can bypass these UI-level safeguards entirely.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to the nature of the actions it enables. By exploiting this authorization bypass, an attacker with standard member credentials can create new projects within the organization and mint write-type ingestion credentials. These credentials act as plaintext secrets that allow the injection of data into the analytics pipeline. This capability transforms a simple information disclosure or privilege escalation issue into one involving data integrity and availability. An adversary can flood the system with fake analytics events, effectively poisoning business metrics such as user engagement numbers, conversion rates, and traffic sources. For organizations relying on OpenPanel for decision-making based on real-time data, this manipulation renders their insights unreliable and potentially misleading, leading to flawed strategic decisions.
Furthermore, the ability to mint ingestion credentials allows attackers to consume the organization's usage budget at an accelerated rate. Since these credentials are write-type, they permit continuous sending of telemetry data without further authentication checks per event. This can lead to a denial-of-service condition by exhausting allocated quotas or incurring unexpected financial costs if the service is metered based on volume. The exposure of plaintext secrets also poses a long-term risk, as these keys could be reused for other malicious activities if not promptly revoked and rotated. The combination of unauthorized project creation and credential generation creates a persistent foothold within the analytics infrastructure, allowing attackers to maintain control over data flows even after initial detection attempts are made by administrators who may not immediately notice subtle changes in metric patterns or quota usage.
From a classification perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-269, which denotes Improper Privilege Control, as it involves an actor obtaining privileges that they should not have access to based on their role. It also relates closely to CWE-862, Missing Authorization, where the software does not perform the correct authorization check for a critical function. In terms of offensive security frameworks, this exploit maps to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1078, Valid Accounts, as it leverages legitimate but insufficiently privileged credentials to gain unauthorized access. Additionally, the act of injecting fake data corresponds to T1565, Data Manipulation, specifically under sub-techniques related to stored or transmitted data modification. Understanding these mappings helps in categorizing the risk and aligning remediation efforts with industry-standard security controls for API security and identity management.
To mitigate this vulnerability, immediate action is required to patch the OpenPanel installation to version 3.0.0 or later, where the authorization logic has been corrected. For organizations unable to upgrade immediately, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that restricts access to tRPC endpoints based on user role headers can provide temporary protection, although this is less reliable than fixing the root cause in the application code. Administrators should also audit existing projects and ingestion credentials for any anomalies or unknown keys generated during the window of vulnerability. Rotating all write-type secrets immediately after patching is essential to invalidate any potentially compromised credentials obtained by attackers. Long-term remediation strategies should include adopting a defense-in-depth approach, ensuring that critical mutations are validated not only at the application layer but also through rigorous unit and integration tests that simulate unauthorized access attempts. Regular security audits of API endpoints against CWE standards will help prevent similar privilege escalation flaws in future development cycles.