Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-6970

Published
27 April 2026
Modified
27 April 2026
CVSS Score v4 7.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/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 0.0011 1th percentile
Risk Priority 28 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-6970 is a high-severity Placement of User into Incorrect Group (CWE-842) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Valid Accounts (T1078); ranked at the 1th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-2 (Account Management) and AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

authd prior to version 0.6.4 contains a logic error in primary group ID assignment that can lead to local privilege escalation. When a user's primary group ID (GID) differs from their UID, either because the account was created with authd…

more

prior to version 0.5.4 or because the primary group was manually changed via the `authctl group set-gid` command, and the user's identity provider record is updated, authd incorrectly resets the user's primary group ID to their UID upon next login. This causes newly created files and directories to be owned by the wrong group, causing denial of service issues, and potentially granting unintended access to other local users and allowing local privilege escalation.

CWE(s)
CWE-842

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-9412Shared CWE-842
CVE-2024-25632Shared CWE-842
CVE-2023-25575Shared CWE-842
CVE-2024-10082Shared CWE-842

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 6 hardening rules · 4 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-2 Account Management good match

AC-2 requires documented procedures for establishing and modifying group memberships, directly stopping incorrect group placement during account provisioning.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

AC-6 requires that privileges (including those granted via groups) be assigned according to the principle of least privilege, reducing the chance of erroneous group placement.

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-05 mostly match
prevents

Policy-driven management, enforcement, and review of authorizations directly addresses incorrect group assignments.

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.

A.5.16 Identity management mostly match
degrades

Identity management process governs group provisioning and de-provisioning, directly addressing incorrect placement.

A.5.18 Access rights mostly match
prevents

Access rights control explicitly requires review and approval of group memberships, preventing erroneous placement.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights mostly match
prevents

Privileged access rights depend on correct groups, yet the control focuses on elevated privileges rather than group assignment accuracy.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

Access control policy defines group membership rules but does not guarantee correct assignment.

A.5.3 Segregation of duties partial match
mitigates

Segregation of duties may be undermined by wrong group membership but does not itself prevent the placement error.

A.8.3 Information access restriction partial match
prevents

Information access restriction is enforced via groups, but the control addresses restriction mechanisms, not membership correctness.

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).

Windows 10 (1 rule)
  • V-220712 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-842
Windows Server 2016 (2 rules)
  • V-224964 Only administrators responsible for the domain controller must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-842
  • V-225007 Only administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-842
Windows Server 2019 (2 rules)
  • V-205746 Windows Server 2019 must only allow Administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-842
  • V-205738 Windows Server 2019 must only allow administrators responsible for the domain controller to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-842

References