Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:NSummary
CVE-2026-28215 is a critical-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Hoppscotch Hoppscotch. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 38th 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 map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — 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-2026-28215 is a critical vulnerability in Hoppscotch, an open source API development ecosystem, affecting self-hosted instances prior to version 2026.2.0. The issue stems from the POST /v1/onboarding/config endpoint lacking any authentication guard or check to prevent reuse after initial onboarding, allowing an unauthenticated attacker to overwrite the entire infrastructure configuration. This includes sensitive settings such as OAuth provider credentials for Google, GitHub, and Microsoft, as well as SMTP configurations. The vulnerability is rated 9.1 on the CVSS v3.1 scale (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N) and maps to CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and CWE-287 (Improper Authentication).
Any unauthenticated attacker with network access to the Hoppscotch instance can exploit this by sending a single HTTP POST request to the vulnerable endpoint. Successful exploitation enables the attacker to replace the instance's OAuth application credentials with their own, redirecting all subsequent SSO logins to the attacker's OAuth app. This allows capture of OAuth tokens and email addresses from every user who logs in post-exploit. Additionally, the endpoint response includes a recovery token that grants plaintext access to all stored secrets, such as SMTP passwords and other configured credentials, enabling full compromise of the instance's configuration.
The Hoppscotch security advisory (GHSA-jwv8-867r-q9fg) and release notes for version 2026.2.0 detail the fix, which adds proper authentication and onboarding completion checks to the endpoint. Security practitioners should immediately upgrade self-hosted instances to version 2026.2.0 or later and review configurations for signs of tampering, such as unexpected OAuth credential changes.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-8912
Vulnerability Data
hoppscotch is an open source API development ecosystem. Prior to version 2026.2.0, an unauthenticated attacker can overwrite the entire infrastructure configuration of a self-hosted Hoppscotch instance including OAuth provider credentials and SMTP settings by sending a single HTTP POST request…
more
with no authentication. The endpoint POST /v1/onboarding/config has no authentication guard and performs no check on whether onboarding was already completed. A successful exploit allows the attacker to replace the instance's Google/GitHub/Microsoft OAuth application credentials with their own, causing all subsequent user logins via SSO to authenticate against the attacker's OAuth app. The attacker captures OAuth tokens and email addresses of every user who logs in after the exploit. Additionally, the endpoint returns a recovery token that can be used to read all stored secrets in plaintext, including SMTP passwords and any other configured credentials. Version 2026.2.0 fixes the issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 16 hardening rules · 6 OS baselines
V10.3.5V6.4.4V6.5.4V6.5.5
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly enforces approved authorizations for logical access, stopping unauthorized actors from reaching resources.
Mandates unique identification and authentication of organizational users before access, directly stopping improper authentication.
Requires unique identification and authentication of devices before establishing connections, preventing unauthenticated device claims.
Mandates unique identification and authentication of non-organizational users, directly addressing the weakness for external actors.
Enforces flow-control policies that restrict information movement between subjects and objects.
Documents duties and assigns access so that no single account can bypass intended restrictions.
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-03 directly enforces authentication mechanisms that eliminate most improper-authentication defects, yet CWE-287 spans additional vectors (missing checks, flawed protocols, session handling) that one control does not fully close.
PR.AA-04 directly enables verification of identity assertions (mostly preventing CWE-287 in that scope) yet leaves many other authentication failure modes unaddressed (only partial prevention overall).
PR.AA-05 directly enforces policy-based access management and least privilege, eliminating most improper-access-control defects, yet CWE-284 also covers implementation flaws and design gaps outside a single management control.
Hardened baselines and deviation monitoring directly eliminate most configuration-induced access-control defects, yet CWE-284 also encompasses code-level and design flaws outside the scope of configuration management alone.
Secure SDLC practices catch most access-control defects during design/coding/testing (mostly), yet leave residual risk from runtime configuration, architecture, and operational controls (partial).
PR.AA-01 supplies managed identities/credentials that support but do not implement access-control decisions, so it only partially prevents CWE-284 in either direction.
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.
Defining and enforcing explicit access rights and restrictions for each entity directly stops the assignment of permissions that exceed what is required, eliminating the root condition that allows improper access control.
Formal authorization, role-based provisioning, and timely revocation of access rights directly stop the creation of accounts or permissions that exceed what the business actually needs.
By enforcing explicit rules on which identities or groups may perform read, write, delete or execute operations and by denying anonymous access to sensitive data, the control directly stops the creation of overly permissive or missing access-control checks.
Requiring authentication methods whose strength matches the sensitivity of the data and mandating multi-factor authentication directly blocks attempts to access resources without proving identity.
Requiring one-to-one mapping of identities to entities and timely removal of unused identities directly stops attackers from leveraging stale or shared accounts to bypass access restrictions.
Verifying user identity before issuing replacement credentials and forcing changes after compromise reduces the likelihood that authentication bypass can be achieved through stolen or weak credentials.
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 (3 rules)
- V-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
- V-248597 There must be no "shosts.equiv" files on the OL 8 operating system. prevents CWE-284
- V-248598 There must be no ".shosts" files on the OL 8 operating system. prevents CWE-284
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
- V-271758 OL 9 file systems must not contain .shosts files. prevents CWE-284
- V-271757 OL 9 file systems must not contain shosts.equiv files. prevents CWE-284
RHEL 7 (5 rules)
- V-204425 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using an empty password. prevents CWE-287
- V-204442 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
- V-204424 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287
RHEL 8 (3 rules)
- V-230492 RHEL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287
- V-230283 There must be no shosts.equiv files on the RHEL 8 operating system. prevents CWE-284
- V-230284 There must be no .shosts files on the RHEL 8 operating system. prevents CWE-284
Ubuntu 22.04 (1 rule)
- V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
Ubuntu 24.04 (2 rules)
- V-270675 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS when booted must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-287
- V-270714 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS must not allow accounts configured in Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287