Cognee up to 0.4.0 API Endpoint exec access control

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Cognee up to 0.4.0. This affects the function exec of the component API Endpoint. The manipulation leads to access control. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-31231. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Cognee up to 0.4.0. It has been rated as critical. This issue affects the function exec of the component API Endpoint. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a access control vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-284. The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Cognee thru v0.4.0 contains a critical remote code execution vulnerability in its notebook cell execution API endpoint. The endpoint is designed to execute arbitrary Python code provided by the user, but it does so using the unsafe exec() function without any sandboxing, validation, or security controls. An attacker can exploit this by sending a specially crafted POST request containing malicious Python code to the execution endpoint. This leads to arbitrary code execution on the Cognee server with the privileges of the server process, allowing complete compromise of the system.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-31231 since 03/09/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/19/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Name

• Cognee

Version

• 0.1
• 0.2
• 0.3
• 0.4.0

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CPE 2.2info

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