# CVE-2026-42869: Hardcoded credentials in CoPilot

> An attacker can forge admin JWTs using a hardcoded secret to gain full control of the SOC platform and integrated tools.

- **Severity:** Critical 10.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 11 May 2026
- **Updated:** 12 May 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4gxj-hw3c-3x2x

## What is CVE-2026-42869?

CVE-2026-42869 is a critical vulnerability in socfortress CoPilot, published on 11 May 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

SOCFortress CoPilot focuses on providing a single pane of glass for all your security operations needs. Prior to 0.1.57, SOCFortress CoPilot ships a hardcoded JWT signing secret as a fallback value in backend/app/auth/utils.py:28 and ships it verbatim in .env.example. Any deployment where JWT_SECRET is not explicitly set — including the default Docker Compose setup — signs all authentication tokens with this publicly known value. An unauthenticated attacker can forge arbitrary admin-scoped JWTs and gain full control of the application and every security tool it manages without any credentials. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.1.57.

Weakness: CWE-798 (Use of Hard-coded Credentials), CWE-522 (Insufficiently Protected Credentials), CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-42869?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-42869?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-42869 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-42869 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-42869 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-42869 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-42869 is a critical vulnerability in socfortress CoPilot, published on 11 May 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-42869 exists.

Affected product: socfortress CoPilot. 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-2026-42869/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42869/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-42869
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-42869
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-42869

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42869/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.