CVE-2026-27111 Kargo has Missing Authorization Vulnerabilities in Approval & Promotion REST API Endpoints
Attackers with standard Kubernetes permissions can bypass promotion authorization checks in Kargo's REST API to trigger unauthorized software promotions.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-27111?
CVE-2026-27111 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in akuity kargo, published on 20 Feb 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Kargo manages and automates the promotion of software artifacts. From v1.9.0 to v1.9.2, Kargo's authorization model includes a promote verb -- a non-standard Kubernetes "dolphin verb" -- that gates the ability to advance Freight through a promotion pipeline. This verb exists to separate the ability to manage promotion-related resources from the ability to trigger promotions, enabling fine-grained access control over what is often a sensitive operation. The promote verb is correctly enforced in Kargo's legacy gRPC API. However, three endpoints in the newer REST API omit this check, relying only on standard Kubernetes RBAC for the underlying resource operations (patch on freights/status or create on promotions). This permits users who hold those standard permissions -- but who were deliberately not granted promote -- to bypass the intended authorization boundary. The affected endpoints are /v1beta1/projects/{project}/freight/{freight}/approve, /v1beta1/projects/{project}/stages/{stage}/promotions, and /v1beta1/projects/{project}/stages/{stage}/promotions/downstream. This vulnerability is fixed in v1.9.3.
Weakness: CWE-862
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-27111?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/akuity/kargo. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/akuity/kargo Go | From 1.9.0 | 1.9.3 |
github.com/akuity/kargo Go | From 1.9.0 | 1.9.3 |
github.com/akuity/kargo Go | From 1.9.0 | 1.9.3 |
Products include Akuity Kargo.
How do I fix CVE-2026-27111?
Upgrade github.com/akuity/kargo to 1.9.3 or later.
Upgrade, and check permissions on every request on the server, not only in the interface. More about Missing authorization.
Is CVE-2026-27111 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-27111 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in akuity kargo
- CVE-2026-27112 Kargo has an Authorization Bypass Vulnerability in Batch Resource Creation API Endpoints
- CVE-2026-24748 Kargo's `GetConfig()` and `RefreshResource()` API endpoints allow unauthenticated access
- CVE-2026-32828 Kargo: SSRF in Promotion http/http-download Steps Enables Internal Network Access and Data Exfiltration
Sources
Also known as GHSA-5vvm-67pj-72g4, GO-2026-4515.