Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-5632

Auth Bypass

Published
06 April 2026
Modified
24 July 2026
CVSS Score v4 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0041 34th percentile
Risk Priority 38 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-5632 is a medium-severity Improper Authentication (CWE-287) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 34th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as AI Agent Protocols and Integrations; in the Supply Chain and Deployment risk domain.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-14 (Permitted Actions Without Identification or Authentication) and IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) — 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-2026-5632 is a missing authentication vulnerability affecting versions of assafelovic/gpt-researcher up to 3.4.3. The issue resides in an unknown function within the HTTP REST API endpoint, classified under CWE-287 (Improper Authentication) and CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function). It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and lack of prerequisites.

Remote attackers require no privileges or user interaction to exploit this vulnerability by manipulating the affected endpoint. Successful exploitation grants low-level impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, potentially allowing unauthorized access or disruption of the API's functions.

Advisories from VulDB (vuln/355420) note that the project was informed early via GitHub issue #1695 but has not responded or issued patches. No mitigations or fixes are currently available; practitioners should restrict network access to the HTTP REST API endpoint until resolution.

The exploit is publicly available, increasing the risk of immediate abuse. As an AI-powered research tool leveraging GPT models, this vulnerability may expose sensitive research workflows in deployments.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability was found in assafelovic gpt-researcher up to 3.4.3. This impacts an unknown function of the component HTTP REST API Endpoint. Performing a manipulation results in missing authentication. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. The exploit has…

more

been made public and could be used. The project was informed of the problem early through an issue report but has not responded yet.

CWE(s)

AI Security AnalysisAI

AI Category
AI Agent Protocols and Integrations
Risk Domain
Supply Chain and Deployment
OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
None mapped
Classification Reason
Matched keywords: gpt

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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.
T1133 External Remote Services Persistence
Adversaries may leverage external-facing remote services to initially access and/or persist within a network.
T1040 Network Sniffing Credential Access
Adversaries may passively sniff network traffic to capture information about an environment, including authentication material passed over the network.
T1134 Access Token Manipulation Stealth
Adversaries may modify access tokens to operate under a different user or system security context to perform actions and bypass access controls.
T1185 Browser Session Hijacking Collection
Adversaries may take advantage of security vulnerabilities and inherent functionality in browser software to change content, modify user-behaviors, and intercept information as part of various browser session hijacking techniques.
T1505.003 Web Shell Persistence
Adversaries may backdoor web servers with web shells to establish persistent access to systems.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-18990Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2026-6129Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2026-11718Shared CWE-287
CVE-2026-3194Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2025-10772Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2026-4187Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2026-7042Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2024-42462Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2023-5376Shared CWE-287, CWE-306
CVE-2025-11661Shared CWE-287, CWE-306

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 14 hardening rules · 5 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V6.4.4
  • V6.5.4
  • V6.5.5
  • V6.5.7

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

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.

Requires authentication of services before they can invoke or expose critical functions.

Explicitly identifies and limits actions permitted without authentication, preventing critical functions from being exposed.

Manages authenticators with verification and secure distribution, reducing opportunities for improper authentication.

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 full match
prevents

Directly requires authentication of users/services/hardware, which eliminates missing authentication for critical functions.

PR.AA-04 mostly match
prevents

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-01 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-01 supplies and governs credentials/tokens that authentication relies on, removing some weak-credential cases, yet leaves verification logic, missing checks, and protocol flaws untouched.

PR.AA-02 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-02 ensures valid enrollment and unique credential binding, which reduces some improper-auth risks at issuance time but leaves runtime claim verification untouched, so each direction only partially addresses the other.

PR.AA-05 partial match
prevents

Defining and enforcing authorizations assumes prior authentication and therefore only partially mitigates the absence of authentication.

PR.IR-01 partial match
prevents

Protecting networks from unauthorized access can be undermined by missing authentication but does not address the root authentication gap.

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.

prevents

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.

prevents

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.

prevents

Mandating segregated approval and oversight for non-human identities reduces the chance that weak or orphaned credentials can be exploited for unauthorized authentication.

prevents

Mandating authentication requirements for critical functions at the requirements-gathering stage ensures that essential operations are not left unprotected by missing login or verification mechanisms.

mitigates

Requiring authentication mechanisms and technical parameters for secure connections ensures that network services verify user identity before granting access, preventing exploitation of missing or weak authentication.

prevents

Security requirements specified early and verified through testing drive the consistent implementation of authentication mechanisms, decreasing the likelihood that authentication steps are omitted or incorrectly applied.

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-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287, CWE-306
  • V-248585 OL 8 must require reauthentication when using the "sudo" command. prevents CWE-306
RHEL 7 (4 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, CWE-306
  • V-204424 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-287
RHEL 8 (2 rules)
  • V-230492 RHEL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-287, CWE-306
  • V-237643 RHEL 8 must require re-authentication when using the "sudo" command. prevents CWE-306
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

References