CVE-2026-16895: CWE-305 Authentication bypass by primary weakness in Rapid7 Metasploit-framework
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.
CVE-2026-16895: CWE-305 Authentication bypass by primary weakness in Rapid7 Metasploit-framework
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.
CVSS v4.0
Score 5.1medium
Affected software
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Weaknesses
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- rapid7
- Date Reserved
- 2026-07-24T05:29:02.405Z
- Cvss Version
- 4.0
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
Threat ID: 6a8fb819acd9273b49c29f48
Added to database: 08/27/2026, 04:07:53 UTC
Last updated: 08/27/2026, 05:22:19 UTC
Views: 7
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