# CVE-2026-44252: Wazuh Manager dapi RBAC Bypass Allows Privilege Escalation

> Low-privilege users can escalate to admin by exploiting an RBAC bypass in Wazuh Manager to impersonate cluster workers and execute arbitrary actions.

- **Severity:** High 7.7 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA: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:** 19 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-34fx-c2xw-xcpg

## What is CVE-2026-44252?

CVE-2026-44252 is a high-severity vulnerability in Wazuh Wazuh, published on 19 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Wazuh is a free and open source platform used for threat prevention, detection, and response. From 4.0.0 until 4.14.5, Wazuh Manager allows a low-privilege read-only API user with manager:read permission to retrieve the cluster key from the element in ossec.conf through GET /manager/configuration?raw=true. An attacker with network access to TCP port 1516 can use the disclosed Fernet key to impersonate a cluster worker and submit distributed API requests containing attacker-controlled rbac_permissions with rbac_mode set to black. Because the master trusts the worker-supplied authorization context, the attacker can create users, assign administrator roles, access credentials and API tokens, modify configuration, and execute actions across agents. This issue is fixed in version 4.14.5.

Weakness: CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-44252?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wazuh Wazuh.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-44252?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-44252 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-44252 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-44252 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-2026-44252 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-44252 is a high-severity vulnerability in Wazuh Wazuh, published on 19 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-44252 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-2026-44252/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-44252/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-44252
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44252
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-44252

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-44252/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.