Privilege escalation in Weaviate
CVE-2026-59093
Weaviate before 1.38.0 does not verify that a principal performing an RBAC role assignment holds the permissions granted by the assigned role. The assignRoleToUser and assignRoleToGroup handlers (POST /authz/users/{id}/assign and /authz/groups/{id}/assign) authorize only that the caller may assign roles to the target user or group, not the permissions contained in the assigned roles, unlike role creation which enforces that a user can only create roles with permissions less than or equal to its own. A user holding only the delegated assign_and_revoke_users or assign_and_revoke_groups permission can assign the built-in admin role, or any high-privilege custom role, to itself or others, escalating to full administrative control of the database.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.007 (52.2th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 52nd percentile — 52.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.007 · newest: 0.007 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Weaviate — versions 0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/weaviate/weaviate/commit/2c75f6fb217631f7751c4b2a7d37a488cef13edb (Patch, patch)
- github.com/weaviate/weaviate/pull/11493 (issue-tracking, Patch, Issue Tracking)
- github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.0 (release-notes, Product, Release Notes)
- www.vulncheck.com/advisories/weaviate-privilege-escalation-via-unchecked-permis… (Patch, Third Party Advisory, Release Notes, third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-59093?
- CVE-2026-59093 is a high-severity vulnerability in Weaviate, classified under Incorrect Privilege Assignment. CVSS score: 8.8/10. Published 2026-07-02.
- How severe is CVE-2026-59093?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.8 out of 10.