Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate to external provider with case-variant privileged username
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DeliveryExternal Authentication module performs case-insensitive identity lookup
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ExploitModule resolves identity to existing privileged Drupal account
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ExecutionAttacker session assumes elevated Drupal role
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ImpactAccess or modify privileged content and site configuration
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Case sensitivity handling
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| Exploitation Conditions | The target Drupal site must have the External Authentication contributed module installed, enabled, and configured to delegate authentication to an external provider (LDAP, SAML, SSO, or similar). The attacker must possess low-level credentials sufficient to authenticate via that external provider (PR:L) and must be able to control or manipulate the username or identity attribute presented during authentication - for example, by registering an account at the provider level with a case-variant name. Sites using only Drupal core local authentication are entirely unaffected. Exploitation impact is highest when external accounts can be mapped to privileged Drupal roles; installations where external users are restricted to low-privilege roles experience reduced real-world impact. |
| Impact | The CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.4 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N) reflects a network-exploitable, low-complexity flaw requiring only low-level privileges, but with bounded impact metrics (C:L/I:L) suggesting partial rather than full compromise in the general case. However, the 'Privilege Escalation' classification is significant: in Drupal deployments where external identities are mapped to administrator or editor roles, real-world impact could substantially exceed the base score. EPSS data is absent from the provided intelligence, so automated exploitation likelihood cannot be quantified independently. No KEV listing exists and no public exploit code has been identified. Even a mid-sized municipal IT team in kielce running Drupal with SSO or LDAP integration should evaluate whether privileged roles are reachable via externally-authenticated accounts before concluding the raw score is representative. Overall this is a genuine, moderate-priority issue - not a critical emergency, but worth prompt remediation for any site with external auth and privileged role assignments. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker with access to a configured external authentication provider (such as LDAP or an SSO identity store) submits credentials using a username that differs only in case from a privileged Drupal account - for example presenting 'Admin' when the privileged local account is 'admin'. The External Authentication module, lacking case normalization, resolves the presented identity to the privileged Drupal account and grants the attacker that account's role and permissions. No public exploit code exists at time of analysis, but the low attack complexity (AC:L) suggests straightforward exploitation once a target privileged account name is identified. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 02, 2026
Privilege escalation in Drupal's External Authentication contributed module (versions 0.0.0 through <2.0.13) allows low-privileged network users to gain elevated Drupal permissions by exploiting improper case-sensitivity handling during identity resolution. The module fails to normalize case in username or identity attribute comparisons against existing Drupal accounts, meaning an attacker can present a case-variant identity (e.g., 'Admin' for a privileged 'admin' account) and be mapped to a higher-privileged user. A vendor-released patch is available at version 2.0.13 per Drupal security advisory SA-CONTRIB-2026-098, and no public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Update the External Authentication contributed module to version 2.0.13 or later, as confirmed by Drupal security advisory SA-CONTRIB-2026-098 at https://www.drupal.org/sa-contrib-2026-098. As a compensating control prior to patching, administrators may temporarily disable the External Authentication module and fall back to Drupal local authentication, which eliminates the attack surface entirely - though this will disrupt SSO/LDAP login workflows for affected users. Additionally, auditing and restricting role mappings so that no externally-authenticated identity can be resolved to privileged Drupal roles (administrator, editor) reduces the maximum achievable privilege level and limits blast radius even if exploitation occurs before patching.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 2 packages in composer, euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The External Authentication Drupal contributed module (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:drupal:external_authentication:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) delegates authentication to external identity providers such as LDAP, SSO, or similar systems, mapping provider-supplied identities to Drupal user accounts. CWE-178 (Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity) indicates the root cause: the module performs identity-matching string comparisons without normalizing case, either conflating distinct accounts that differ only in case or failing to correctly de-duplicate external identities against privileged local accounts. This means an attacker who controls or can manipulate their identity presentation at the external provider level can supply a case-variant string that resolves to a different, potentially more privileged, Drupal account. All module versions from 0.0.0 up to the fix at 2.0.13 are within scope per the EUVD-confirmed range.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Requires low-privilege external provider credentials (PR:L); network vector and low complexity are consistent with a web-layer identity-comparison flaw; no availability impact applies.
Primary rating from Vendor (drupal).
CVSS VectorVendor: drupal
Lifecycle Timeline
3DescriptionCVE.org
Improper Handling of Case Sensitivity vulnerability in Drupal External Authentication allows Privilege Escalation. This issue affects External Authentication versions: from 0.0.0 to 2.0.13.
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
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.
EUVD-2026-69990
GHSA-85hq-q7c6-7j82
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB