CVE-2026-44794 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) CWE-862 vulnerability in nautobot. A fix is available for nautobot — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Nautobot: REST API permits creation of GenericForeignKey references to objects that the user should not be able to reference
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2026-44794.
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-2026-44794 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 379,145 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
nautobot🐍nautobotReal-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
Impact
In the case of inter-object references via GenericForeignKey (a pattern allowing an object to reference another object that may belong to one of several different "content types" or database tables), when creating or updating an object containing a GenericForeignKey, Nautobot's REST API failed to enforce user "view" permissions when determining whether a given reference to another object would be valid.
As a concrete example, a user:
- who has permission to create or update
ImageAttachmentrecords - but who lacks permission to view (some or all)
Devicerecords - but who knows (via some other mechanism) the UUID of a specific
Devicethat they do not otherwise have access to
could create via the REST API an ImageAttachment linked to that specific Device.
Other models that use GenericForeignKey and may be writable via the REST API, and hence have a similar vulnerability to ImageAttachment, may include:
ApprovalWorkflowCableConfigContextContactAssociationDataComplianceDeviceExportTemplateGraphQLQueryNoteObjectMetadataRelationshipAssociationStaticGroupAssociationVirtualMachine
Additionally, any Nautobot Apps that provide models with a REST API and use GenericForeignKey may have a similar vulnerability for their models.
Patches
A general-purpose fix has been implemented in Nautobot 2.4.33 and 3.1.2, which ensures correct application of "view" permissions when creating or modifying object references via GenericForeignKey throughout the REST API. Individual models/views/serializers generally will not require any specific code changes to benefit from this fix.
Workarounds
No known workarounds at this time.
References
- 2.4.33 (<a href="https://github.com/nautobot/nautobot/commit/9918bdb9bcf1eb42cda72c344f420a64ef7665f1">patch</a>)
- 3.1.2 (<a href="https://github.com/nautobot/nautobot/commit/36cde7148a207234de6212ec074f321dbc9d1b5b">patch</a>)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | nautobot | ≥ 3.0.0a2&&< 3.1.2 | 3.1.2pip install --upgrade 'nautobot==3.1.2' |
| 🐍PyPI | nautobot | all versions | 2.4.33pip install --upgrade 'nautobot==2.4.33' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for nautobot, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update nautobot to 3.1.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-44794 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-2026-44794 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-44794. 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-2026-44794 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-44794 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.