CVE-2026-59093: Weaviate < 1.38.0 - Privilege Escalation via Unchecked Permissions in RBAC Role Assignment

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-59093 is a high (CVSS 8.8) Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in weaviate. EPSS estimates a 0.71% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 53.6% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 02-07-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 14-07-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Weaviate before 1.38.0 does not verify that a principal performing an RBAC role assignment holds the permissions granted by the assigned role. The assignRoleToUser and assignRoleToGroup handlers (POST /authz/users/{id}/assign and /authz/groups/{id}/assign) authorize only that the caller may assign roles to the target user or group, not the permissions contained in the assigned roles, unlike role creation which enforces that a user can only create roles with permissions less than or equal to its own. A user holding only the delegated assign_and_revoke_users or assign_and_revoke_groups permission can assign the built-in admin role, or any high-privilege custom role, to itself or others, escalating to full administrative control of the database.

• CWE-266Incorrect Privilege AssignmentA product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.