CVE-2026-116163VulnerabilityPublished 10/25/2026

CVE-2026-116163: parse-server · Improper Authentication

Affects parse-community parse-serverSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.1 Critical.

Data as of 10/25/2026, 17:13:39 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

9.1Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: Present
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High
Vulnerable system integrity: High
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: Present: The successful attack depends on the presence of specific deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system that enable the attack. These include: a race condition must be won to successfully exploit the vulnerability (the successfulness of the attack is conditioned on execution conditions that are not under full control of the attacker, or the attack may need to be launched multiple times against a single target before being successful); the attacker must inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim (e.g. vulnerabilities requiring an on-path attacker).
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High: There is a total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all information within the Vulnerable System being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact. For example, an attacker steals the administrator's password, or private encryption keys of a web server.
Vulnerable system integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the vulnerable system. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 25 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
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 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
parse-communityparse-server	Affected >=9.0.0 <9.10.5-alpha.2	Fixed in 9.10.5-alpha.2
parse-communityparse-server	Affected <8.6.102	Fixed in 8.6.102
GitHubparse-community/parse-server`pkg:github/parse-community/parse-server`Other threats	Affected <8.6.102 >=9.0.0 <9.10.5-alpha.2	Fixed in 8.6.102 9.10.5-alpha.2

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

AI-suggested

Users should upgrade parse-server to versions 8.6.102 or later, or 9.10.5-alpha.2 or later, where this vulnerability is fixed. Patch status is confirmed by the version ranges indicating fixed versions. No additional mitigation steps are indicated beyond applying these updates.

Description

Parse Server versions before 8.6.102 and versions from 9.0.0 up to but excluding 9.10.5-alpha.2 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability. This occurs because certain validation methods in custom authentication adapters are never called, causing the system to use a default method that accepts any authentication data. Attackers can exploit this to sign up, link identities, log in as existing users, or bypass additional authentication factors without proper verification.

Impact

An attacker can bypass authentication controls, enabling unauthorized sign-up, identity linking, login as existing users, or skipping additional authentication factors. This can lead to unauthorized access to user accounts and potentially sensitive data. The CVSS 4.0 score of 9.1 indicates a critical severity due to network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, and high impact on confidentiality and integrity.

Summary

CVE-2026-116163 describes an authentication bypass vulnerability in parse-community's parse-server. Versions prior to 8.6.102 and from 9.0.0 up to 9.10.5-alpha.2 are affected. The issue arises because the validateSetUp, validateLogin, and validateUpdate methods of custom adapters subclassing AuthAdapter are never invoked. Instead, an inherited default method that accepts any authData is used, allowing attackers to supply arbitrary authentication data to bypass intended authentication checks.

References

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