Gitea: Least Privilege Violation
CVE-2026-103504 is a high-severity least privilege violation vulnerability in Gitea, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.1 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. Affected Gitea versions: 1.27.3 and earlier. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.26% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.
High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.
What to do
- Check which version of Gitea you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
- Read the advisory on github.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.
Affected products and versions
Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.
How the severity score breaks down
- Attack vector
- NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
- Attack complexity
- LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
- Privileges required
- LowA basic user account is enough.
- User interaction
- NoneNo action by a victim is required.
- Scope
- UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
- Confidentiality
- HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
- Integrity
- HighData or code can be modified at will.
- Availability
- NoneAvailability is not affected.
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N. Scored by CISA (ADP).
Official description
Changing an organization team's permission through the API with only the `permission` field did not rebuild the team's per-unit access, and the requested level was not applied as a cap. After an organization owner demoted a team, for example from admin to read, the team's members kept their previous unit permissions, including write access to the team's repositories. The web form was not affected.
Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.
The underlying weakness: Least Privilege Violation
The elevated privilege level required to perform operations such as chroot() should be dropped immediately after the operation is performed.
How developers prevent this class of flaw
- Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
- Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
- Compartmentalize the system to have safe areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.
Timeline
- CVE record published.
- CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
- Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).
References
Patches and release notes
Other references
Other vulnerabilities in Gitea
- 9.8 Critical severity
- 7.5 High severity
- 7.5 High severity
- 7.5 High severity
- 9.1 Critical severity
- 9.1 Critical severity
Recent Least Privilege Violation vulnerabilities
- 7.3 High severity
- 7.2 High severity
- 7.8 High severity
- 7.8 High severity
- 8.8 High severity
- 8.8 High severity
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