CVE-2026-40525 — openviking
Fix: volcengine/OpenViking@c7bb167CVE-2026-40525 is a CWE-636 vulnerability in openviking. A fix is available for openviking — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenViking < 0.3.9 Authentication Bypass via VikingBot OpenAPI
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2026-40525.
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.
Real-World Exposure
openvikingReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
OpenViking prior to version 0.3.9 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in the VikingBot OpenAPI HTTP route surface where the authentication check fails open when the api_key configuration value is unset or empty. Remote attackers with network access to the exposed service can invoke privileged bot-control functionality without providing a valid X-API-Key header, including submitting attacker-controlled prompts, creating or using bot sessions, and accessing downstream tools, integrations, secrets, or data accessible to the bot.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | openviking | all versions | 0.3.9pip install --upgrade 'openviking==0.3.9' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for openviking, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update openviking to 0.3.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-40525 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-2026-40525 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-40525. 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-2026-40525 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-40525 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.