Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:LSummary
CVE-2026-24042 is a critical-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Appsmith Appsmith. Its CVSS base score is 9.4 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 45th 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-2026-24042 is a missing authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) affecting Appsmith, an open-source platform for building admin panels, internal tools, and dashboards, in versions 1.94 and below. The flaw occurs in publicly accessible apps, where unauthenticated users can execute unpublished edit-mode actions by sending a POST request to /api/v1/actions/execute with the parameter viewMode=false or by omitting it entirely. This circumvents the intended publish boundary, which restricts public viewers to only published actions and excludes edit-mode versions. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.4 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L), indicating high confidentiality, integrity, and limited availability impact.
Any unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit this issue against affected Appsmith instances hosting public apps. Exploitation requires only crafting and sending the manipulated POST request, enabling execution of edit-mode queries and APIs. Successful attacks can lead to sensitive data exposure, access to development data, and triggering of side-effect behaviors such as unintended API calls or data modifications.
The GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-j9qq-4fj9-9883) confirms no fix has been released as of the CVE publication date. Security practitioners should monitor Appsmith's official channels for patches, restrict public app exposure where possible, and implement network-level controls to block unauthorized API access until remediation is available.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-4221
Vulnerability Data
Appsmith is a platform to build admin panels, internal tools, and dashboards. In versions 1.94 and below, publicly accessible apps allow unauthenticated users to execute unpublished (edit-mode) actions by sending viewMode=false (or omitting it) to POST /api/v1/actions/execute. This bypasses the…
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expected publish boundary where public viewers should only execute published actions, not edit-mode versions. An attack can result in sensitive data exposure, execution of edit‑mode queries and APIs, development data access, and the ability to trigger side effect behavior. This issue does not have a released fix at the time of publication.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
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Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
AC-3 directly requires enforcement of authorization decisions on every access request, structurally eliminating missing authorization checks.
AC-24 mandates that access control decisions are applied to each request, preventing bypass of authorization logic.
AC-25 requires a tamperproof, always-invoked reference monitor that ensures authorization checks cannot be omitted.
AC-6 reduces the set of actions reachable without proper authorization, limiting blast radius of missing checks.
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.
Explicitly requires defining, enforcing, and reviewing authorizations and least privilege, directly preventing missing authorization checks.
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.
Requiring authentication and credentials before any access occurs eliminates the absence of authorization checks that would otherwise allow an unauthenticated actor to reach protected resources.
Requiring formal authorization of every access request before rights are granted ensures that checks for required permissions are performed, preventing missing authorization checks from being introduced.
Mandatory authorization checks and central records of granted rights ensure that every access attempt is preceded by an explicit decision rather than relying on missing checks.
Segregating the approval of access rights from their implementation provides an independent check that reduces the impact of missing authorization checks in the resulting system configuration.
By requiring competent outsiders to verify that every function enforces the need-to-know principle, the control lowers the likelihood that missing authorization checks persist undetected.
Defining authorization responsibilities and reviewing risk-treatment progress throughout the project lifecycle catches missing authorization checks before the system is deployed.
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-862
- V-252656 The OL 8 operating system must not be configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-862
RHEL 7 (2 rules)
- V-251704 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not be configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-862
- V-204429 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that users must provide a password for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-862