Description
Weaviate before 1.38.0 does not verify that a principal performing an RBAC role assignment holds the permissions granted by the assigned role. The assignRoleToUser and assignRoleToGroup handlers (POST /authz/users/{id}/assign and /authz/groups/{id}/assign) authorize only that the caller may assign roles to the target user or group, not the permissions contained in the assigned roles, unlike role creation which enforces that a user can only create roles with permissions less than or equal to its own. A user holding only the delegated assign_and_revoke_users or assign_and_revoke_groups permission can assign the built-in admin role, or any high-privilege custom role, to itself or others, escalating to full administrative control of the database.
Published: 2026-07-02
Score: 8.7 High
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
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Remediation

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History

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 20:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Weaviate before 1.38.0 does not verify that a principal performing an RBAC role assignment holds the permissions granted by the assigned role. The assignRoleToUser and assignRoleToGroup handlers (POST /authz/users/{id}/assign and /authz/groups/{id}/assign) authorize only that the caller may assign roles to the target user or group, not the permissions contained in the assigned roles, unlike role creation which enforces that a user can only create roles with permissions less than or equal to its own. A user holding only the delegated assign_and_revoke_users or assign_and_revoke_groups permission can assign the built-in admin role, or any high-privilege custom role, to itself or others, escalating to full administrative control of the database.
Title Weaviate < 1.38.0 - Privilege Escalation via Unchecked Permissions in RBAC Role Assignment
First Time appeared Weaviate
Weaviate weaviate
Weaknesses CWE-266
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:weaviate:weaviate:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Weaviate
Weaviate weaviate
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 8.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}

Subscriptions

Weaviate Weaviate
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: VulnCheck

Published:

Updated: 2026-07-02T19:40:22.778Z

Reserved: 2026-07-02T15:38:18.928Z

Link: CVE-2026-59093

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

No data.

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-07-02T22:15:03Z

Weaknesses
  • CWE-266

    Incorrect Privilege Assignment