# CVE-2026-48117: DroneAware's Improper Account Activation in Registration and SSO Flows Leads to Account Takeover

> Attackers can pre-register accounts with victim emails to hijack them upon activation, requiring server-side patching for the DroneAware platform.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Jun 2026

## What is CVE-2026-48117?

CVE-2026-48117 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in fduflyer DroneAware-Node-Releases, published on 17 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

DroneAware is a drone detection platform. The centralized DroneAware server backing droneaware.io was vulnerable to an account pre-hijacking attack in which an attacker could register an account using a victim's email address with an attacker-controlled password before the victim completed account activation. When the legitimate owner later activated the account, either by clicking the email verification link or by logging in via Google SSO, the attacker-set password became fully valid, enabling silent and persistent account takeover without any notification to the victim. The vulnerability was fixed server-side on 2025-05-20; no user action is required. Node binaries and self-hosted detection nodes are not affected. There are no workarounds; the fix was deployed server-side and no client-side mitigation is applicable.

Weakness: CWE-302 (Authentication Bypass by Assumed-Immutable Data), CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-48117?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-48117?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-48117 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-48117 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-48117 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-48117 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-48117 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in fduflyer DroneAware-Node-Releases, published on 17 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-48117 exists.

Affected product: fduflyer DroneAware-Node-Releases. 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-2026-48117/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48117/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48117
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48117
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-48117

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48117/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.