CVE-2026-45041
Published: 28 May 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-45041 is a high-severity Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key (CWE-321) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 8.7 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Private Keys (T1552.004); ranked at the 15.0th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-32996
Vulnerability details
RustFS is a distributed object storage system built in Rust. Prior to 1.0.0-beta.2, crates/appauth/src/token.rs ships a 2048-bit RSA private key as a string constant named TEST_PRIVATE_KEY and uses it in production via parse_license() to "verify" license tokens. Because the key…
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is embedded in every published source release and binary, anyone who can read the repository or extract it from the binary can mint arbitrary license tokens (any subject, any expiration). When the license Cargo feature is enabled, this defeats the entire license-enforcement mechanism. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.0.0-beta.2.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Hard-coded private key (CWE-321) directly enables credential theft/forgery (T1552.004) and bypass of license auth in a public-facing storage service (T1190).
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
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.
Supply chain protection includes scrutiny of cryptographic implementations, reducing hard-coded keys planted by untrusted vendors.
Functional and assurance requirements specified in acquisition can prohibit hard-coded cryptographic keys in delivered products.
Proper key establishment and management processes directly preclude embedding static cryptographic keys in source code or binaries.
Approved PKI issuance and trust stores replace ad-hoc or hard-coded keys with properly managed, signed certificates.
Assessments can uncover and prevent suppliers from shipping components that contain hard-coded cryptographic keys.