hexpm hex up to 2.5.1 Cooldown Bypass privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in hexpm hex up to 2.5.1. It has been classified as problematic. This issue affects the function Hex.RemoteConverger.build_cooldown_bypass/Hex.RemoteConverger.unsafe_lock_bypass of the component Cooldown Bypass. The manipulation leads to privileges management. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-105668. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in hexpm hex up to 2.5.1. This issue affects the function Hex.RemoteConverger.build_cooldown_bypass/Hex.RemoteConverger.unsafe_lock_bypass of the component Cooldown Bypass. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. Impacted is integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Protection Mechanism Failure vulnerability in hexpm hex allows the owner of a package, or an attacker who has taken over the owner's account, to get a newly published release past the release-age cooldown. The cooldown (cooldown config, HEX_COOLDOWN) withholds versions younger than the configured age during dependency resolution. When the release of a package locked in mix.lock is retired or has a security advisory, Hex.RemoteConverger.build_cooldown_bypass/3 and Hex.RemoteConverger.unsafe_lock_bypass/1 lift the cooldown for every version of that package and of every package the locked release depends on, so that mix deps.update can move off the unsafe release. Retiring a release needs the same package owner permission as publishing one. An attacker who publishes a malicious release can retire the currently locked release, and the next mix deps.update that unlocks the package selects the new release regardless of its age. Hex.Registry.Cooldown.versions/2 checks the bypass by package name alone, so the bypass also covers packages with the same name in other repositories. Cooldown configured through an organization dependency policy is not affected. This issue affects hex: from 2.5.0 before 2.5.2.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-105668 since 10/08/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. The exploitation needs additional levels of successful authentication. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1068 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 2.5.2 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• hexpm

Name

• hex

Version

• 2.5.0
• 2.5.1

Website

• Product: https://github.com/hexpm/hex/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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