# 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.

- **Severity:** High 8.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 14 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-98f2-hwvc-w247

## 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.

Weakness: CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## 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.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-16772 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-16772 exists.

Affected product: Akaunting. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16772/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16772/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-16772
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16772
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-16772

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16772/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.