CVE-2026-26416
Published: 05 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-26416 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Tcs Cognix Platform. 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 30.1th 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 AC-5 (Separation of Duties).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-26416, published on 2026-03-05, is an authorization bypass vulnerability in Tata Consultancy Services Cognix Recon Client version 3.0. The flaw allows authenticated users to escalate privileges across role boundaries through crafted requests. It 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) and maps to CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management).
The vulnerability can be exploited by authenticated users possessing low privileges (PR:L), who can send crafted requests over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction required (UI:N). Successful exploitation enables privilege escalation across role boundaries, leading to high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H) within the unchanged security scope (S:U).
Advisories and further details are documented in GitHub repositories at https://github.com/aksalsalimi/CVE-2026-26416 and https://github.com/aksalsalimi/cognix-recon-client-security-advisories. Product information from Tata Consultancy Services is available at https://www.tcs.com/what-we-do/services/cognitive-business-operations/solution/cognix-platform-business-agility-enhanced-cx. Security practitioners should review these sources for recommended mitigations or patches.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-9840
Vulnerability details
An authorization bypass vulnerability in Tata Consultancy Services Cognix Recon Client v3.0 allows authenticated users to escalate privileges across role boundaries via crafted requests.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Authorization bypass (CWE-269) in an authenticated context directly enables an adversary with low-privileged valid credentials to obtain higher privileges via crafted requests, matching the definition of T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces approved authorizations to directly prevent crafted requests from bypassing access controls and enabling privilege escalation.
Applies least privilege principle to restrict authenticated low-privilege users from escalating across role boundaries.
Organizes duties into separated roles to block unauthorized privilege escalation across role boundaries via crafted requests.