# CVE-2026-41424: Wazuh: Privilege Escalation via Admin-Protection Bypass in update-user API Endpoint

> Authenticated users with users_admin role can bypass admin protection to overwrite superuser passwords and gain full administrative control.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 19 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-gj9h-8hmr-xjjr

## What is CVE-2026-41424?

CVE-2026-41424 is a high-severity vulnerability in Wazuh Wazuh, published on 19 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. From 4.9.0 until 4.10.4 and 4.14.6, PUT /security/users/{user_id} in api/api/controllers/security_controller.py passes request.get("user") instead of request.context['token_info']['sub'] as current_user. remove_nones_to_dict() removes the resulting None value, so the reserved-account protection in framework/wazuh/security.py cannot verify who is making the request. An authenticated user with the users_admin role can overwrite the password of protected administrator accounts with user IDs at or below 99, including the wazuh superuser, and gain full administrative control. This issue is fixed in versions 4.10.4 and 4.14.6.

Weakness: CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-41424?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wazuh Wazuh.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-41424?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-41424 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-41424 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-41424 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in Wazuh Wazuh

- [CVE-2025-24016](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-24016/): Wazuh Server Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-32038](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-32038/): Wazuh Analysis Engine Event Decoder Heap-based Buffer Overflow Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-44079](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-44079/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-1243](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-1243/): Remote code execution and local privilege escalation in Wazuh Windows agent via NetNTLMv2 hash theft (critical 9.5)
- [CVE-2026-61800](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-61800/): Wazuh cluster worker file sync allows arbitrary file write under /var/ossec (incomplete fix for CVE-2026-30893) (critical 9.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-41424 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-41424 is a high-severity vulnerability in Wazuh Wazuh, published on 19 Aug 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-41424 exists.

Affected product: Wazuh Wazuh. 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-2026-41424/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41424/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-41424
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41424
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-41424

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41424/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.