Privilege escalation via missing administrator activation guard
Published Sep 8, 2026 · Updated Sep 8, 2026
Missing authorization in Craft CMS 5.0.0-RC1 through 5.10.11 allows remote authenticated users to activate administrator accounts. UsersController::actionActivateUser checks administrateUsers but passes the targeted account to activateUser() without requiring administrator status when that account is an administrator. A non-administrator control-panel user needs the administrateUsers permission and a pending or deactivated administrator account; resetting that account's password then grants administrator access.
Summary
What happened
Missing authorization in Craft CMS 5.0.0-RC1 through 5.10.11 allows remote authenticated users to activate administrator accounts. UsersController::actionActivateUser checks administrateUsers but passes the targeted account to activateUser() without requiring administrator status when that account is an administrator. A non-administrator control-panel user needs the administrateUsers permission and a pending or deactivated administrator account; resetting that account's password then grants administrator access.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-86731
- Published
- Sep 8, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 8, 2026
- Vendor
- Pixel & Tonic
- Product
- Craft CMS
- Classifications
- CWE-862, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 8, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 8, 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=5.0.0-RC1 <5.10.12
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
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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