CVE-2025-26511

High

Published: 13 February 2025

Published

13 February 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0003 7.7th percentile

Risk Priority 18 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-26511 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 7.7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of the authorization flaw in the Cassandra-Lucene-Index plugin, directly preventing RBAC bypass and privilege escalation via patching to fixed versions.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

Mandates enforcement of approved authorizations and RBAC policies, directly countering the incorrect authorization that enables authenticated users to bypass controls and escalate privileges.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

prevent

Enforces least privilege for Cassandra accounts, limiting the potential impact and scope of privilege escalation even if RBAC bypass occurs.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The CVE describes a privilege escalation vulnerability due to incorrect authorization allowing RBAC bypass in the Cassandra plugin, directly enabling T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

Systems running the Instaclustr fork of Stratio's Cassandra-Lucene-Index plugin versions 4.0-rc1-1.0.0 through 4.0.16-1.0.0 and 4.1.2-1.0.0 through 4.1.8-1.0.0, installed into Apache Cassandra version 4.x, are susceptible to a vulnerability which when successfully exploited could allow authenticated Cassandra users to remotely bypass…

RBAC and escalate their privileges.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-26511 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Instaclustr fork of Stratio's Cassandra-Lucene-Index plugin, affecting versions 4.0-rc1-1.0.0 through 4.0.16-1.0.0 and 4.1.2-1.0.0 through 4.1.8-1.0.0 when installed into Apache Cassandra 4.x. Published on 2025-02-13, it stems from incorrect authorization (CWE-863), enabling authenticated users to bypass role-based access control (RBAC). The issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Attackers require only low-privileged authenticated access to Cassandra (PR:L) and can exploit the flaw remotely over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N). Successful exploitation allows bypassing RBAC to escalate privileges, resulting in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H) within the unchanged scope (S:U).

The Instaclustr security advisory (GHSA-mrqp-q7vx-v2cx) and patch commit (44ab4b639c9354a6335f40b1cf6178c745c6e101) at https://github.com/instaclustr/cassandra-lucene-index provide mitigation guidance, including upgrading to fixed versions beyond the affected ranges.