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 14.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Likely Mitigating ControlsAI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Policy addresses roles, responsibilities, and privilege management to prevent improper privilege assignments.
Access supervision ensures privileges are assigned and managed without improper escalation or retention.
Assigning group/role memberships and access authorizations (privileges) while reviewing accounts addresses improper privilege management.
Enforces proper privilege management by requiring all decisions through the verified reference monitor.
By mandating division of duties across roles, the control enforces proper privilege management and prevents a single entity from controlling an entire sensitive process.
Implements core proper privilege management by restricting to only required rights.
Policy requires training on privilege management and least privilege, making it harder to exploit improper privilege management weaknesses.
Training covers proper privilege management practices, making incorrect privilege assignments less likely.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct privilege escalation via API endpoint abuse matches Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068).
NVD Description
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.
Deeper analysisAI
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.
Details
- CWE(s)