CVE-2026-27960 OpenCTI privilege escalation and unauthenticated access via default admin account

What is CVE-2026-27960?

CVE-2026-27960 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in OpenCTI-Platform opencti, published on 5 May 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

OpenCTI is an open source platform for managing cyber threat intelligence knowledge and observables. In versions 6.6.0 through 6.9.12, there is a privilege escalation vulnerability that can be exploited by unauthenticated attackers to query the API as any existing user, including the default admin account. This issue has been fixed in version 6.9.13. As a workaround, the default admin can be disabled using the `APP__ADMIN__EXTERNALLY_MANAGED` configuration.

Weakness: CWE-287

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-27960?

1 open source package ship an affected version, including pycti. It affects 1 product.

Products include Citeum Opencti.

How do I fix CVE-2026-27960?

Upgrade pycti to 6.9.13 or later.

Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.

Is CVE-2026-27960 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-27960 exists.

Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module and 1 Nuclei template.

Other vulnerabilities in OpenCTI-Platform opencti

• CVE-2026-39980 OpenCTI affected by RCE via notifier template Critical 9.1
• CVE-2025-24977 OpenCTI has remote code execution and sensitive secrets exposed through web hook Critical 9.1
• CVE-2024-26139 OpenCTI Authenticated Privilege Escalation High 8.3
• CVE-2024-45404 OpenCTI's lack of Rate Limit lead to OTP brute forcing High 8.1
• CVE-2026-21887 OpenCTI has a Semi-Blind SSRF via Unvalidated External URL in Data Ingestion Feature High 7.7

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-6vvv-vmfr-xhrx, PYSEC-2026-119.