CVE-2026-54261 Wagtail: Improper permission handling in image preview

Medium 6.5 Published 1 Jul 2026 Updated 2 Jul 2026

An authenticated admin user can view any image preview due to missing permission checks, exposing image data to unauthorized admins.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2026-54261?

CVE-2026-54261 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in wagtail, published on 1 Jul 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django. In versions prior to 7.0.8, 7.3.3 and 7.4.2, due to a missing permission check on the image preview endpoint, a user with access to the Wagtail admin can preview any image. The existing data of the image object itself is not exposed. The vulnerability is not exploitable by an ordinary site visitor without access to the Wagtail admin. This issue has been fixed in versions 7.0.8, 7.3.3, and 7.4.2.

Weakness: CWE-280

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-54261?

7 open source packages ship an affected version, including wagtail. It affects 1 product.

Package	Affected	Fixed in
`wagtail` PyPI	All versions	`7.0.8, 7.3.3, 7.4.2`
`wagtail` PyPI	All versions	`7.0.8`
`wagtail` PyPI	All versions	`7.0.8`
`wagtail` PyPI	From `7.1`	`7.3.3`
`wagtail` PyPI	From `7.1`	`7.3.3`
`wagtail` PyPI	From `7.4`	`7.4.2`

1 more packages

wagtail PyPI From 7.4 7.4.2

Products include Torchbox Wagtail.

How do I fix CVE-2026-54261?

Upgrade wagtail to a fixed version for your release line: 7.0.8, 7.3.3 or 7.4.2.

Upgrade, and check permissions on every request on the server, not only in the interface. More about Missing authorization.

Is CVE-2026-54261 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-54261 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-r6p4-grq7-xm4m, PYSEC-2026-614.