Account pre-hijacking via retained OAuth2 link
Published May 12, 2026 · Updated May 12, 2026
Improper authentication in PocketBase before 0.22.42 and 0.30.0 through 0.37.3 allows remote attackers to pre-hijack user accounts. The OAuth2 autolinking upgrade marks an unverified record as verified and resets its password without deleting OAuth2 links established before the upgrade. Exploitation requires the victim's email address, two different enabled OAuth2 providers, an attacker-created unverified record, and the victim's later sign-in; the surviving link preserves attacker access to the victim's account.
Summary
What happened
Improper authentication in PocketBase before 0.22.42 and 0.30.0 through 0.37.3 allows remote attackers to pre-hijack user accounts. The OAuth2 autolinking upgrade marks an unverified record as verified and resets its password without deleting OAuth2 links established before the upgrade. Exploitation requires the victim's email address, two different enabled OAuth2 providers, an attacker-created unverified record, and the victim's later sign-in; the surviving link preserves attacker access to the victim's account.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-44166
- Published
- May 12, 2026
- Updated
- May 12, 2026
- Vendor
- PocketBase
- Product
- PocketBase
- Classifications
- CWE-287, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 12, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 12, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 0.22.42
- Affected versionversion=>= 0.30.0, < 0.37.4
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
- PocketBase OAuth2 Account Pre-Hijacking Lab and PoCproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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