CVE-2026-65007 in Api Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 07/21/2026
The Grav api plugin (grav-plugin-api) before 1.0.8 fails to properly authorize API key generation and revocation: the plugin intercepts the apiKeyGenerate/apiKeyRevoke admin tasks before the account-management ACL runs and authorizes the caller on only the admin.login permission (the baseline permission held by every panel user). This allows any user with admin.login to mint a persistent API key bound to any account, and the forged key inherits the target account's API permissions. On installs where an API-enabled account holds broader permissions, this enables account impersonation and privilege escalation up to account takeover.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/21/2026
The vulnerability in the Grav api plugin affects versions prior to 1.0.8 and represents a critical authorization flaw that undermines the security model of the administrative interface. This issue stems from improper order of operations within the plugin's access control implementation where API key generation and revocation tasks are processed before the standard account-management access control lists (ACL) are evaluated. The flaw creates a dangerous privilege escalation vector by allowing any authenticated user with the basic admin.login permission to generate or revoke API keys for arbitrary accounts, effectively bypassing the intended authorization boundaries that should protect sensitive administrative functions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability leverages the plugin's interception mechanism which executes before the core ACL system validates permissions. When a user attempts to generate or revoke an API key through the admin interface, the plugin intercepts these requests and authorizes them based solely on the presence of the admin.login permission rather than evaluating whether the user has proper authorization to perform these operations on the target account. This design flaw creates a fundamental mismatch between the expected security model and actual implementation, where the baseline permission becomes a backdoor for privilege escalation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted across different deployment scenarios. Any user with basic administrative login access can create persistent API keys that inherit the permissions of the targeted account, enabling them to perform actions that would normally require higher privileges. When accounts have broader API permissions or elevated access rights, attackers can impersonate those users entirely, leading to complete account takeover scenarios. This vulnerability essentially allows lateral movement within the administrative system and can result in unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion across multiple user accounts depending on their permission levels.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-285 (Improper Authorization) and represents a classic case of insufficient access control validation occurring at inappropriate points in the request processing flow. From an attack perspective, this flaw maps directly to techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under privilege escalation and credential access phases where attackers leverage weak authorization controls to gain elevated privileges. The persistence of the forged API keys makes this vulnerability particularly dangerous as it enables long-term unauthorized access rather than just a single exploitation attempt.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper permission validation at all levels of the request processing pipeline, ensuring that API key operations are validated against the appropriate account permissions before any key generation or revocation occurs. The plugin should be updated to enforce proper ACL checks for all API key management operations and validate that users have explicit authorization to perform these actions on the target accounts. Organizations should also implement monitoring for unauthorized API key creation events and consider restricting API key functionality to minimal required permissions. Additionally, regular security audits of plugin implementations should verify that access control mechanisms are properly ordered and that no early-stage interception bypasses core security validation points.