CVE-2026-23526VulnerabilityPublished 21 Jan 2026Updated 26 Feb 2026

CVE-2026-23526: cvat · Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions

Affects cvatSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.5 High : upgrade to 2.55.0 soon.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

8.5High

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 22% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.55.0

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: High
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: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker requires privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable system allowing full access to the vulnerable system’s settings and files.
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 21 Jan 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 wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by 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

Upgrade cvat and cvat-ai/cvat to 2.55.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
cvat-aicvat	Affected >=1.0.0 <2.55.0	Fixed in 2.55.0
GitHubcvat-ai/cvat`pkg:github/cvat-ai/cvat`Other threats	Affected <2.55.0	Fixed in 2.55.0

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

AI-suggested

1. Upgrade CVAT installations to version 2.55.0 or later immediately to apply the official fix that restricts staff users from modifying their own permissions. 2. Conduct a thorough audit of all users with staff status and revoke this role from any users who do not require it or are not fully trusted. 3. Implement strict access control policies and role assignment procedures to minimize the number of staff users. 4. Monitor logs for unusual permission changes or privilege escalations within CVAT. 5. Consider deploying CVAT behind strong network access controls and VPNs to limit exposure to trusted users only. 6. Regularly review and update user roles and permissions as part of security hygiene. 7. If upgrading immediately is not possible, temporarily disable staff user functionality or restrict it via custom configuration or firewall rules to prevent exploitation.

Description

CVAT is an open source interactive video and image annotation tool for computer vision. In versions 1.0.0 through 2.54.0, users that have the staff status may freely change their permissions, including giving themselves superuser status and joining the admin group, which gives them full access to the data in the CVAT instance. Version 2.55.0 fixes the issue. As a workaround, review the list of users with staff status and revoke it from any users that are not expected to have superuser privileges.

Impact

The vulnerability allows any user with staff status to escalate privileges to superuser and admin levels, resulting in complete compromise of the CVAT instance. This can lead to unauthorized access, modification, or deletion of sensitive annotation data, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information processed within CVAT. Organizations using CVAT for critical computer vision projects risk data breaches, loss of data integrity, and potential operational disruption. The breach of administrative controls also undermines trust in the system's security and may expose organizations to regulatory and compliance violations. Since CVAT is often deployed in research, commercial AI development, and governmental projects, the impact can be widespread and severe. The vulnerability's remote exploitability without user interaction further increases the threat, enabling insider threats or compromised staff accounts to cause significant damage.

CWE-267Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
A particular privilege, role, capability, or right can be used to perform unsafe actions that were not intended, even when it is assigned to the correct entity.
Architecture and Design · Operation
Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
Architecture and Design · Operation · Environment Hardening
Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Docker Security (opens in a new tab)
Third Party Javascript Management (opens in a new tab)
Virtual Patching (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.4.4 (opens in a new tab)
V1.4.5 (opens in a new tab)
V1.10.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Restful Privilege Elevation (opens in a new tab)
Probe Audio and Video Peripherals (opens in a new tab)
Collect Data from Clipboard (opens in a new tab)
Identify Shared Files/Directories on System (opens in a new tab)
Collect Data from Screen Capture (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Feb 2026, 08:42 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-267

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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