CVE-2026-41492

CriticalPublic PoC

Published: 24 April 2026

Published

24 April 2026

Modified

28 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0015 35.7th percentile

Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2026-41492 is a critical-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor (CWE-200) vulnerability in Dgraph Dgraph. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 35.7th 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 CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and SC-14 (Public Access Protections).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly mitigates the CVE by requiring timely identification, reporting, and correction of the flaw through patching to Dgraph 25.3.3, which fully resolves the /debug/vars exposure.

CM-6 Configuration Settings good match

prevent

Enforces secure configuration settings to avoid passing admin tokens via command-line flags and to disable or protect debug endpoints like /debug/vars from unauthorized access.

SC-14 Public Access Protections good match

prevent

Requires enforcement of access controls on publicly accessible unauthenticated interfaces such as /debug/vars to prevent exposure of sensitive command-line information including admin tokens.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The unauthenticated /debug/vars endpoint in a public-facing GraphQL database enables exploitation of a public-facing application (T1190) to expose and steal the admin token via command line arguments (T1212).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

Dgraph is an open source distributed GraphQL database. Prior to 25.3.3, Dgraphl exposes the process command line through the unauthenticated /debug/vars endpoint on Alpha. Because the admin token is commonly supplied via the --security "token=..." startup flag, an unauthenticated attacker…

can retrieve that token and replay it in the X-Dgraph-AuthToken header to access admin-only endpoints. This is a variant of the previously fixed /debug/pprof/cmdline issue, but the current fix is incomplete because it blocks only /debug/pprof/cmdline and still serves http.DefaultServeMux, which includes expvar's /debug/vars handler. This vulnerability is fixed in 25.3.3.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2026-41492 affects Dgraph, an open source distributed GraphQL database, specifically versions prior to 25.3.3 in the Alpha component. The vulnerability involves the unauthenticated /debug/vars endpoint, which exposes the process command line. This endpoint serves data from expvar's http.DefaultServeMux, revealing sensitive information such as the admin token when it is supplied via the common --security "token=..." startup flag. Rated at CVSS 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and mapped to CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information), it represents an incomplete fix for a prior /debug/pprof/cmdline issue.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this by accessing the /debug/vars endpoint to retrieve the exposed admin token from the command line. The attacker can then replay this token in the X-Dgraph-AuthToken header to gain unauthorized access to admin-only endpoints, potentially allowing full compromise of the database including high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations.

The vulnerability is fixed in Dgraph version 25.3.3, as detailed in the release notes and GitHub security advisory GHSA-vvf7-6rmr-m29q. Security practitioners should upgrade to 25.3.3 or later and review configurations to avoid passing sensitive tokens via command-line flags.