After the unification of public-only token filtering in Gitea (PR #37118, CVE-2026-25714), a residual issue remains where 'public-only' PAT scope is bypassable on Repository and Package categories if the owner's visibility is set to 'Limited'. The visibility checks for these categories rely on 'repo.IsPrivate' or 'Owner.Visibility.IsPrivate()', which return false for 'Limited' visibility, unlike other categories that correctly reject non-public visibility using '!Visibility.IsPublic()'. This discrepancy allows a 'public-only' token to access repository and package content that should be restricted to internal users only. The vulnerability was confirmed on Gitea 1.26.2 with a proof-of-concept demonstrating unauthorized access to limited-visibility packages and repositories. Affected code paths include API v1 package endpoints, repository API endpoints, and web download endpoints, all of which fail to properly restrict access based on 'Limited' visibility.

An attacker with a 'public-only' scoped personal access token can access repository and package content owned by users with 'Limited' visibility, which is intended to be internal-only. This results in unauthorized read access to potentially sensitive internal packages and repository data. The vulnerability does not allow write or modification actions, and the token scope enforcement correctly restricts other categories such as User and Organization. There are no known exploits in the wild at this time.

Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until an official fix is released, users should avoid using 'public-only' scoped tokens on repositories or packages owned by users with 'Limited' visibility or restrict the use of such tokens accordingly. Monitor official Gitea repositories and advisories for updates addressing this issue.