# CVE-2026-19278: Stackrox: stackrox: privilege escalation via unanchored regular expressions in auth m2m role mappings

> Attackers with valid OIDC tokens can escalate privileges by exploiting unanchored regex in M2M role mappings, requiring admin configuration.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/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:** 10 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 11 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-7c5g-xvpm-qr5v

## What is CVE-2026-19278?

CVE-2026-19278 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4, published on 10 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in StackRox/RHACS Central's Auth Machine-to-Machine (M2M) token exchange. When an administrator configures M2M role mappings, the system uses unanchored regular expressions for matching claim values. This allows an attacker with a valid OpenID Connect (OIDC) token, whose claim value is a superstring of a configured pattern, to gain unauthorized access to roles they were not intended to receive. This can lead to privilege escalation within the system.

Weakness: CWE-625 (Permissive Regular Expression)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-19278?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-19278?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-19278 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-19278 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-19278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-19278 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-19278 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4, published on 10 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-19278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4. 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-2026-19278/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19278/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-19278
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-19278
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-19278

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19278/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.