CVE-2026-23896
Published: 29 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-23896 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Futo Immich. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 21.8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-23896 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Immich, a high-performance self-hosted photo and video management solution. In versions prior to 2.5.0, API keys can exploit an update endpoint to escalate their own permissions, enabling a low-privilege API key to grant itself full administrative access to the system. The issue is classified under CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management) with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.2 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
An attacker with access to a low-privilege API key can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. By calling the vulnerable update endpoint, the attacker escalates the API key's permissions to full administrative privileges, potentially allowing high-impact unauthorized access to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the Immich system.
The official GitHub security advisory (GHSA-237r-x578-h5mv) confirms that upgrading to Immich version 2.5.0 resolves the vulnerability by addressing the improper permission escalation in the API key update mechanism. Security practitioners should prioritize patching affected deployments and review existing API key permissions.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-4957
Vulnerability details
immich is a high performance self-hosted photo and video management solution. Prior to version 2.5.0, API keys can escalate their own permissions by calling the update endpoint, allowing a low-privilege API key to grant itself full administrative access to the…
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system. Version 2.5.0 fixes the issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct privilege escalation via API endpoint abuse matches Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly prevents low-privilege API keys from self-escalating to admin rights by enforcing the principle that privileges must be limited to only those required.
Ensures the API key update endpoint enforces approved authorizations and rejects unauthorized permission changes attempted by the key itself.
Requires proper authorization and review processes when modifying account/API-key privileges, blocking the self-escalation path described in the CVE.