CVE-2026-16772 CVE-2026-16772
Low-privileged users can escalate to admin by modifying their own account role due to missing authorization checks in the profile update process.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-16772?
CVE-2026-16772 is a high-severity vulnerability in Akaunting, published on 14 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In Akaunting versions <= 3.1.21, low‑privileged authenticated users can modify their own account to assign themselves the admin role ID, granting full administrator privileges. This vulnerability is caused by a flaw in the `UpdateUser` job, which processes user-supplied role assignments via an unconditional `roles()->sync()` call without verifying whether the caller is authorized to manage roles. Users only require the default `update-auth-profile` permission to access the self-update path and assign themselves as admins. The API endpoints are properly permission‑gated and are not affected by this issue. This vulnerability has been remediated in v3.2.0, commit 80ef6d3b154a.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-16772?
How do I fix CVE-2026-16772?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-16772 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-16772 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-16772 exists.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-98f2-hwvc-w247.