Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-61781

Access Control in Citeum Opencti ≤ 6.8.1

Published
05 January 2026
Modified
30 January 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0021 11th percentile
Risk Priority 52 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-61781 is a high-severity Improper Authorization (CWE-285) vulnerability in Citeum Opencti. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 11th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-25 (Reference Monitor) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-61781 affects OpenCTI, an open source platform for managing cyber threat intelligence knowledge and observables, in versions prior to 6.8.1. The vulnerability resides in the GraphQL mutation "WorkspacePopoverDeletionMutation," which enables deletion of workspace-related objects such as dashboards and investigation cases. This mutation lacks proper authorization checks to verify the requester's ownership of the targeted resources, allowing unauthorized actions based on CWE-285 (Improper Authorization), CWE-566 (Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key), CWE-915 (Improperly Controlled Modification of Dynamically-Determined Object Attributes), and CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization). The issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H), indicating high availability impact with low integrity impact.

An authenticated attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. By supplying the active UUID of a workspace owned by another user, the attacker bypasses ownership validation, causing the mutation to execute successfully and resulting in the complete unauthorized deletion of the targeted workspace.

The GitHub Security Advisory at https://github.com/OpenCTI-Platform/opencti/security/advisories/GHSA-pr6m-q4g7-342c details the issue and confirms that upgrading to OpenCTI version 6.8.1 resolves the vulnerability by implementing the necessary authorization checks.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

OpenCTI is an open source platform for managing cyber threat intelligence knowledge and observables. Prior to version 6.8.1, the GraphQL mutation "WorkspacePopoverDeletionMutation" allows users to delete workspace-related objects such as dashboards and investigation cases. However, the mutation lacks proper authorization…

more

checks to verify ownership of the targeted resources. An attacker can exploit this by supplying an active UUID of another user. Since the API does not validate whether the requester owns the resource, the mutation executes successfully, resulting in unauthorized deletion of the entire workspace. Version 6.8.1 fixes the issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
T1548.001 Setuid and Setgid Privilege Escalation
An adversary may abuse configurations where an application has the setuid or setgid bits set in order to get code running in a different (and possibly more privileged) user’s context.
T1548.002 Bypass User Account Control Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may bypass UAC mechanisms to elevate process privileges on system.
T1548.003 Sudo and Sudo Caching Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may perform sudo caching and/or use the sudoers file to elevate privileges.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-21886Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2025-46732Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2026-35210Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2024-45805Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2026-35211Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2025-24887Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2024-26139Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2024-37155Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2026-44730Same product: Citeum Opencti
CVE-2026-27960Same product: Citeum Opencti

Affected Assets

citeum
opencti
≤ 6.8.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 11 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Mandates that access-control decisions are made and applied to each request before access occurs.

Requires a tamperproof, always-invoked reference monitor that performs authorization checks.

Directly requires enforcement of approved authorizations for every access request, stopping improper or missing checks.

Limits granted privileges so that even a bypassed check affects fewer resources.

Validates incoming attribute names and values so that only explicitly allowed fields are accepted for update.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-05 mostly prevents CWE-285 via enforced policy, reviews, and least-privilege authorization decisions, yet CWE-285 remains only partially prevented because code-level check omissions or errors can still occur outside that single control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices catch and eliminate most authorization defects before release, yet a single broad outcome cannot address every design, role, and runtime facet of CWE-285.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-01 supplies managed identities and access-request workflows that can support downstream authorization decisions, yet does nothing to enforce or verify authorization checks inside a product, leaving CWE-285 fully unaddressed by this control alone.

PR.IR-01 partial match
prevents

Network segmentation/zero-trust limits external reachability (partial prevention of exploitation) but leaves application-level authorization logic untouched, so the CWE remains fully introducible and only one facet of its risk is addressed.

PR.PS-05 none match
prevents

PR.PS-05 blocks unauthorized binaries/DNS while CWE-285 is an in-product authorization-check defect, so the control neither prevents the weakness nor removes any of its risk.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe dynamic attribute assignment and require property allow-lists.

finds

Security testing in development can detect missing authorization checks and unsafe SQL construction before release.

prevents

Granular, policy-driven assignment of permissions and dynamic enforcement of those permissions prevent the incorrect or missing authorization decisions that lead to improper authorization flaws.

prevents

By requiring documented authorization rules and periodic policy reviews, the control makes it less likely that authorization decisions will be omitted or implemented inconsistently across applications.

prevents

Mapping access rights to information classification and business requirements forces correct enforcement of authorization decisions, blocking the incorrect authorization weakness at the policy and implementation stage.

prevents

Enforcing policy-driven approval and role-change reviews stops incorrect or stale authorization decisions from remaining in effect after job changes or terminations.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
  • V-248581 OL 8 must require users to provide a password for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-285, CWE-863
  • V-252656 The OL 8 operating system must not be configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-285, CWE-863
RHEL 7 (3 rules)
  • V-204429 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that users must provide a password for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-285
  • V-204430 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that users must re-authenticate for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-285, CWE-863
  • V-251704 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not be configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-285
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-251712 The RHEL 8 operating system must not be configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-285, CWE-863

References