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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-16895: A logic vulnerability (fail-open condition) has been identified within the Metasploit Framework's

Source GCVE Database

0
Authoritative record:CVE-2026-16895· Medium 5.1

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.1 Medium : upgrade to 6.5.2 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
5.1Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 14% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 6.5.2
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 27 Aug 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade Metasploit-framework and JSON-RPC to 6.5.2.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Rapid7Metasploit-frameworkAffected
  • <6.5.2
Fixed in
  • 6.5.2
GitHubJSON-RPCpkg:github/JSON-RPCOther threatsAffected
  • <6.5.2
Fixed in
  • 6.5.2

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

A logic vulnerability (fail-open condition) has been identified within the Metasploit Framework's JSON-RPC web service interface. When an exception occurs during the database health check (db.check) and the environment variable MSF_WS_JSON_RPC_API_TOKEN is not explicitly set, the application resets the internal state flag msf.auth_initialized to false. The ApiToken Warden authentication strategy misinterprets this false value as an indicator that authentication is not initialized or required, thereby granting unauthenticated local access to the JSON-RPC request dispatcher.

References

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