Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate as backend operator with admin.users
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DeliveryOpen flex accounts editor
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ExploitSubmit flat key access.admin.super
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ExecutionGuard bypass survives filterArray and flattening
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PersistsetNestedProperty writes admin.super
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ImpactFull super-admin over CMS
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Object-level authorization, IDOR prevention
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| Exploitation Conditions | Requires an authenticated backend account on the Grav 2.0 flex accounts backend that already holds the admin.users permission but not admin.super - i.e., a delegated/sub-administrator. Exploitation uses the group or account blueprints and depends on the version-specific flat-key handling present in 2.0.14 through 2.0.24; installs on 2.0.25+ or on older 1.x lines outside this range are not affected. What limits exploitation: the attacker must already have privileged (though non-super) backend access, so this is an insider or post-compromise privilege-escalation vector rather than a remote unauthenticated one; no user interaction is required. |
| Impact | This is a genuine, high-value privilege escalation, not a high-CVSS-but-low-real-risk issue. The CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H, score 8.7) is well-supported: the attack is network-reachable through the standard flex-accounts backend, has low complexity (a single crafted flat-key form submission), needs no user interaction, and yields full super-admin control over configuration, plugin/theme installation, the file manager, and all accounts. The only meaningful gate is PR:L - the attacker must already be an authenticated backend operator holding admin.users. No EPSS score, KEV entry, or public POC is present in the provided data, so exploitation status is: no public exploit identified at time of analysis. There is no conflict between the CVSS vector and the description - both agree on authenticated network access. The main caveat is that the impact is contingent on an insider or a compromised sub-admin account rather than a fully unauthenticated attacker, which lowers the population of realistic attackers even though technical impact is total. Net: real priority for any Grav 2.0 deployment with delegated (non-super) admin accounts. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A backend operator granted only admin.users (e.g., a delegated account manager) opens the flex accounts editor and submits a flat dot-notation key such as access.admin.super=true for their own account or a group they belong to. The blueprint's security@ admin.super guard resolves only the exact nested path and never matches the flattened key, so it survives filtering and is reconstructed into the nested access map on save, promoting the operator to full super-admin. No public exploit code is identified, but the technique is fully described and trivially reproducible. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 26, 2026
Privilege escalation in Grav CMS 2.0.14 through 2.0.24 allows an authenticated backend operator who already holds the admin.users permission - but not admin.super - to grant super-admin rights to their own account or to a group they belong to via the flex accounts backend. The bypass works because the security guard is resolved against a field's exact blueprint path, so a crafted flat dot-notation key such as access.admin.super evades the rule match and is later reconstructed into a genuine nested value when the object is saved. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, and because the attacker must already possess privileged but non-super backend access, this is an insider or post-compromise escalation vector rather than a remote unauthenticated one - but the resulting super-admin control over configuration, plugin and theme installation, the file manager, and all accounts makes it a genuine, high-value escalation rather than a high-CVSS-but-low-real-risk issue.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade Grav CMS to 2.0.25 or later, which drops any dotted key whose ancestor path is disabled or marked validate.ignore and thereby closes the flat-key bypass; because the flaw is in how the account and group blueprints are filtered, the upgrade is the only complete fix and no configuration toggle restores the guard. Until upgrading is possible, treat the compensating controls as risk reduction rather than a fix: audit stored account and group definitions (the flex accounts backend YAML) for anomalous flat keys such as access.admin.super and remove them, understanding that a determined operator can simply re-inject the key; restrict the admin.users permission to a minimal set of trusted operators so the pool of accounts able to reach the flex accounts backend is as small as possible, accepting that this reduces but does not eliminate insider risk and may disrupt delegated administration workflows; and monitor backend audit logs for permission changes on accounts or groups that grant super-admin rights, acknowledging that detection is after-the-fact and only useful if the write path is logged and reviewed. The vendor advisory at https://github.com/getgrav/grav/security/advisories/GHSA-mwjj-r7vm-pgqm should be consulted for any vendor-supplied mitigation guidance accompanying the 2.0.25 release.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
Grav stores its access-control model in blueprint definitions, and the group and account blueprints gate sensitive permissions with a security@: admin.super guard. That guard is matched by the field's exact path within the blueprint schema, so it only catches keys presented in their canonical nested form (access[admin][super]). When an authenticated operator submits a flat dot-notation key such as access.admin.super instead, no blueprint rule matches the path, and the value survives BlueprintSchema::filterArray() and the subsequent flattening step. On write, FlexObject::update() passes the surviving key to setNestedProperty(), which splits the string on '.' and rebuilds the nested structure - effectively materializing access.admin.super as legitimate configuration. The root cause is CWE-639 (Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key): user-controlled key naming determines whether an authorization guard fires, rather than the authorization decision being driven by the resulting privilege set. This is a version-specific behavior present only in the 2.0.14 through 2.0.24 releases, which is why the fix in 2.0.25 explicitly drops any dotted key whose ancestor path is disabled or marked validate.ignore. The CPE record for the vendor (cpe:2.3:a:getgrav:grav) is version-wildcarded, so the precise exposure window comes from the vendor advisory and the EUVD range (grav 0 < 2.0.25) rather than from CPE version matching.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Network-reachable backend with low-complexity flat-key submission; PR:L because a delegated admin.users account is required; escalation to super-admin yields full C/I/A within the same application (S:U).
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Grav CMS 2.0.14 through 2.0.24 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the group and account blueprints. The access map is gated by a security@: admin.super guard that is resolved by the field's exact path, so a submitted flat dot-notation key such as access.admin.super (instead of the nested access[admin][super]) matches no blueprint rule, survives BlueprintSchema::filterArray() and flattening, and is written by FlexObject::update() via setNestedProperty(), which splits on . and reconstructs the nested value. An authenticated backend operator using the flex accounts backend who holds admin.users but not admin.super can therefore grant admin.super to their own account or to a group they belong to and escalate to full super-admin, gaining control over configuration, plugin and theme installation, the file manager, and all accounts. Fixed in 2.0.25, which drops any dotted key whose ancestor path is disabled or marked validate.ignore.
Technical POC Analysis
CWE-639 (authorization bypass through user-controlled key), per the CVE metadata; the advisory itself lists no CWE, and the mechanism is more precisely a path-resolution/authorization-logic mismatch…
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Executive ViewAI
Grav CMS versions 2.0.14 through 2.0.24 contain a high-severity privilege escalation flaw that allows a backend operator with limited administrative rights to grant themselves super-admin control. Organizations using these versions face potential full CMS takeover-including configuration, plugin/theme installation, file manager, and all accounts-if an insider or compromised privileged account exploits the issue. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and a vendor patch is available, but the impact of successful escalation warrants immediate remediation.
Apply vendor patch.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
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EUVD-2026-87764
GHSA-xw59-q7ph-pgh5
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB