CVE-2026-45332 — automad
HIGHCVE-2026-45332 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Information Exposure vulnerability in automad/automad. A fix is available for automad/automad — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Automad Broken Access Control: unauthenticated exposure of administrator bcrypt password hashes and TOTP secrets via public API endpoint
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-45332.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-45332 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 384,534 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
automad/automadReal-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
A Broken Access Control vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to retrieve the bcrypt password hash of every administrator account with a single POST request. The /_api/user-collection/create-first-user setup endpoint remains publicly accessible once initial configuration is complete and returns full serialized user data in the JSON response body.
Details
Affected version:
- bcrypt hash exposure:
>= 2.0.0-alpha.1, <= 2.0.0-beta.27 - TOTP secret exposure: only
2.0.0-beta.27
Impact
Any Automad installation reachable over HTTP is at risk no prior account, credentials, or special network position are required to exploit this vulnerability.
Potential impacts include:
- Credential hash exposure enabling offline brute-force or dictionary attacks: bcrypt password hashes for every administrator are returned in a single unauthenticated response. While hashes are not plaintext passwords, the salt embedded in the hash is not secret it is visible in the response. Administrators using common or weak passwords are at direct risk of having their plaintext password recovered.
- TOTP secret exposure:
The TOTP secret is included in the response starting with version
2.0.0-beta.27, the first release introducing TOTP-based two-factor authentication. If an attacker successfully recovers a plaintext password, two-factor authentication can be bypassed entirely. Only version2.0.0-beta.27is affected by this specific issue. - Information disclosure: The response discloses the absolute filesystem path to the configuration directory. While the directory structure is publicly documented, the absolute server path may expose environment-specific information.
Remediation
Update to version 2.0.0-beta.28 or later.
This issue was reported privately and fixed prior to public disclosure.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | automad/automad | ≥ 2.0.0-alpha.1&&< 2.0.0-beta.28 | 2.0.0-beta.28composer require automad/automad:^2.0.0-beta.28 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for automad/automad, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update automad/automad to 2.0.0-beta.28 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-45332 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
How to detect CVE-2026-45332
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2026-45332 -u https://target- Template
- Automad < 2.0.0-beta.28 - Unauthenticated Admin Password Hash Disclosure
- Severity
- high
- Impact
- Unauthenticated attackers can retrieve bcrypt password hashes of all administrator accounts, risking credential compromise and full system takeover.
- Remediation
- Upgrade to version 2.0.0-beta.28 or later.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (str4k3r), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-45332 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.