Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2026-23526 lets CVAT users who already have staff status raise their own privileges, including becoming superusers or joining the admin group. That can give them full access to data in the CVAT instance. The issue affects CVAT 1.0.0 through 2.54.0 and is fixed in 2.55.0.
Executive priority
Treat as a high-priority access-control issue for CVAT environments containing sensitive annotation data. Prioritize upgrading and reducing staff-status accounts, especially on shared or internet-accessible instances.
Technical view
CVAT contains a privilege escalation flaw classified as CWE-267. A network-accessible authenticated user with high privileges, specifically staff status, can modify their permissions to gain superuser/admin capabilities. CVSS v4.0 is 8.5 High, with high confidentiality and integrity impact and no stated availability impact.
Likely exposure
Organizations running CVAT versions 1.0.0 through 2.54.0 are exposed if any users have staff status. Risk is highest where staff status is broadly granted, accounts are shared, or staff credentials could be compromised.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not indicate active exploitation, and this CVE is not marked as KEV. Exploitation requires an existing staff-status account, so the main concern is insider misuse or compromise of a privileged CVAT user.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE record, GitHub advisory, and fixing commit. The advisory states affected versions and workaround. No public exploitation evidence is provided in the supplied sources. Avoid assuming impact outside CVAT or beyond staff-status privilege escalation.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade CVAT to version 2.55.0 or later.
- Review all users with staff status.
- Revoke staff status from users not expected to have superuser privileges.
- Check the GitHub advisory for any updated vendor guidance.
Validation and detection
- Inventory CVAT deployments and record running versions.
- Confirm whether any instance runs CVAT below 2.55.0.
- List users with staff status and verify business need.
- Review recent permission, superuser, and admin-group changes where logs are available.
- Confirm upgraded instances report version 2.55.0 or later.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-267: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupPrivilege behavior lookup
The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-23526 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.5 (4.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: 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
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
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——Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
8.5HighVector: 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
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/cvat-ai/cvat/security/advisories/GHSA-7pvv-w55f-qmw7CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/cvat-ai/cvat/commit/88ac7aa4d5b52271a30f1aa387c0f5745f8f77d4CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions
Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.