CVE-2026-27198 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in getformwork/formwork. A fix is available for getformwork/formwork — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Formwork Improperly Manages Privileges During User Creation
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-27198.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-27198 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
getformwork/formworkReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
The application fails to properly enforce role-based authorization during account creation. Although the system validates that the specified role exists, it does not verify whether the current user has sufficient privileges to assign highly privileged roles such as admin. As a result, an authenticated user with the editor role can create a new account with administrative privileges, leading to full administrative access and complete compromise of the CMS.
Impact
Successful exploitation allows an attacker to:
- Gain full administrative control over the CMS.
- Access all site data and user information.
- Modify system configuration and security settings.
- Create, modify, or delete any user account, including legitimate administrators.
Patches
Formwork 2.3.4 properly assigns roles on user creation.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | getformwork/formwork | ≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.3.4 | 2.3.4composer require getformwork/formwork:^2.3.4 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for getformwork/formwork, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update getformwork/formwork to 2.3.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-27198 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-27198 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-27198. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-27198 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-27198 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.