CVE-2026-94609 in authentik
Summary
by MITRE • 09/24/2026
authentik is an open-source identity provider. Prior to 2026.2.7, 2026.5.7, and 2026.8.2, an account with delegated permission to manage a group, group membership, or a user can grant superuser status to an account or assign an existing role to a group without holding the permissions that gate those privileges. Group hierarchy checks do not consistently account for superuser status inherited from ancestor groups, and role assignment to a group lacks the required authorization check. Only deployments that delegate these management capabilities to accounts that are not full administrators are affected. This issue is fixed in versions 2026.2.7, 2026.5.7, and 2026.8.2.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/25/2026
The vulnerability identified within the authentik identity provider represents a critical authorization flaw that allows for privilege escalation through improper enforcement of role-based access control policies. Authentik is widely deployed as an open-source solution to manage digital identities and provide single sign-on capabilities, making it a central component in many enterprise security architectures. The core issue stems from inconsistencies in how the application validates permissions when delegating management tasks to non-administrative accounts. Specifically, users who are granted delegated authority to manage groups, group memberships, or individual users possess the ability to bypass standard authorization checks that should restrict their actions based on their actual privilege level. This flaw effectively allows a user with limited administrative rights to elevate their own status to superuser or assign high-level roles to other entities without possessing the specific permissions required for such actions.
The technical mechanism of this vulnerability involves two primary failure points within the application's logic. First, group hierarchy checks fail to consistently account for inherited superuser status from ancestor groups. In a typical hierarchical structure, privileges are often accumulated as one moves up or down the tree depending on configuration; however, in this case, the system does not correctly validate whether the current user has the requisite authority before allowing them to grant elevated permissions. Second, the process of assigning roles to groups lacks the necessary authorization check entirely. This means that a delegated administrator can assign powerful roles to a group or themselves without the backend verifying if they hold the specific permission gates associated with those roles. These flaws are particularly dangerous because they exploit the trust placed in delegated administrators who are intended to have limited scope, thereby undermining the principle of least privilege which is fundamental to secure identity management systems.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe for any deployment that relies on delegating administrative tasks to non-full-administrator accounts. An attacker or malicious insider with access to a delegated account can escalate their privileges to gain superuser status, effectively taking full control over the authentik instance. This level of access allows them to modify authentication policies, manage all user identities, and potentially compromise downstream applications that rely on authentik for single sign-on. The ability to assign existing roles to groups further exacerbates the risk by allowing lateral movement or broadening the scope of compromised accounts across multiple services integrated with the identity provider. This undermines the integrity of the entire access control framework, as security policies enforced at the application level can be bypassed through these logical flaws in permission validation.
Mitigation for this issue requires immediate action to ensure that all instances of authentik are updated to version 2026.2.7, 2026.5.7, or 2026.8.2 and later. These releases contain the necessary code corrections to enforce proper authorization checks during group management and role assignment operations. For organizations that cannot immediately patch their systems due to operational constraints, it is advisable to review delegated permissions carefully. Administrators should ensure that no non-full-administrator accounts are granted the ability to manage groups or assign roles until patches can be applied. Additionally, implementing strict monitoring for unusual privilege escalation activities within the authentik audit logs can help detect potential exploitation attempts in real-time. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-269, which describes Improper Privilege Management, and reflects common patterns found in ATT&CK techniques related to account manipulation and permission abuse, highlighting the importance of rigorous validation logic in identity management software.