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PingFederate EUVDEUVD-2026-77373

| CVE-2026-20773 HIGH
Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863)
2026-09-14 Ping Identity GHSA-xffc-pg4j-3qv4
8.5
CVSS 4.0 · Vendor: Ping Identity
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Obtain low-privilege PingFederate admin credentials
  2. Delivery
    Authenticate to admin console over network
  3. Exploit
    Call expression evaluation endpoint beyond role entitlement
  4. Execution
    Execute expression in federation runtime context
  5. Persist
    Exfiltrate identity attributes or signing material
  6. Impact
    Manipulate downstream federated application access

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization logic validation
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires an authenticated session as a PingFederate administrative user holding one of the 'certain administrative roles' described - this is a low-privilege (PR:L) authenticated condition, not unauthenticated. The attacker must have network access to the PingFederate administrative interface (AV:N). No additional attack prerequisites are specified (AT:N, AC:L). Exploitation is limited by the requirement for a valid admin-role credential; pre-authentication exploitation is not indicated by any available data. The specific role(s) whose permissions are misconfigured are not named in available public data - consult the vendor advisory for the exact role boundary. Deployments that restrict administrative console access to internal management networks have a meaningfully reduced attack surface.

Impact

The CVSS 4.0 score of 8.5 (High) is well-calibrated for this vulnerability. PR:L confirms an authenticated administrative account is the gate - mass unauthenticated exploitation is not possible, which meaningfully constrains the attack surface to insider threat, compromised credentials, or phishing of admin-role users. However, the subsequent-system impacts (SC:H/SI:H/SA:H) reflect the outsized downstream blast radius of a PingFederate compromise: any system federating identity through the affected instance is at risk of manipulated authentication assertions, session hijacking, or service disruption. No EPSS data was provided; no KEV listing exists; no public proof-of-concept has been identified. Real-world prioritization should be driven by the value of the identity federation environment - a PingFederate instance brokering access to hundreds of applications warrants urgent patching, while isolated dev/test instances present lower urgency. The 'Authentication Bypass' tag in the source data is misleading and overstates the ease of exploitation; this is a privilege escalation within an authenticated admin context, not a pre-auth bypass.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker who has compromised a low-privilege PingFederate administrative account (or a malicious insider with such access) navigates to the expression evaluation endpoint via the admin API. By submitting crafted expressions, they read sensitive identity attributes, adapter credentials, or token-signing configuration stored in the server's runtime context, then use that data to forge authentication assertions or pivot to downstream federated applications.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 14, 2026

Incorrect authorization in PingFederate's administrative expression evaluation endpoint allows authenticated low-privilege administrative users to invoke expression testing functionality reserved for higher-privileged roles. The CVSS 4.0 vector (8.5, PR:L) confirms exploitation requires an existing administrative account, but the substantial downstream impact (SC:H/SI:H/SA:H) reflects that PingFederate acts as an identity broker - compromising its expression evaluation capability cascades to every system relying on it for authentication and authorization decisions. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, and there is no CISA KEV listing.

RemediationAI

Apply the vendor-released patch as described in Ping Identity Security Advisory SECADV054, available at https://support.pingidentity.com/s/article/SECADV054-Improper-Authorization-in-PingFederate-Administrative-Expression-Evaluation-Endpoint. The exact patched version is not independently confirmed from the available input data - consult the advisory for the precise fix version. As a compensating control prior to patching, restrict network access to the PingFederate administrative console to trusted management networks or VPN endpoints only, reducing the attack surface to users already on privileged network segments. Review and audit current admin role assignments to ensure the principle of least privilege is enforced - remove expression evaluation permissions from roles that do not operationally require them. Note that network restriction alone does not eliminate the risk if a lower-privileged admin account is compromised by an insider or credential theft.

Affected VersionsENISA

PingFederate 12.2.0 ≤12.2.7
PingFederate 12.3.0 ≤12.3.5
PingFederate 12.1.0 ≤12.1.10
PingFederate 12.0.0 ≤12.0.10
PingFederate 11.3.0 ≤11.3.14
PingFederate 13.0.0 ≤13.0.1

Affected Packages

euvd pingfederate no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

PingFederate (cpe:2.3:a:ping_identity:pingfederate) is an enterprise identity federation server supporting SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and WS-Federation protocols. Its administrative console includes an expression evaluation endpoint that allows administrators to test scripted expressions - typically OGNL (Object Graph Navigation Language) or Groovy - used in adapter configurations, authentication policies, and attribute mapping pipelines. CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) indicates that the authorization check guarding this endpoint does not correctly enforce role boundaries: users possessing lower-tier administrative roles (intended for scoped admin tasks) can reach the expression evaluation API that should require a more privileged role. Expression evaluation in federation servers is high-impact capability because expressions operate within the server's runtime context, accessing identity attributes, session data, adapter configurations, and potentially system properties.

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Severity by source

Vendor (Ping Identity) PRIMARY 8.5 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
vuln.today AI 9.9 CRITICAL

Network-accessible admin endpoint, low-privilege auth required; scope change because expression execution impacts all downstream federated systems beyond PingFederate itself.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

Primary rating from Vendor (Ping Identity).

CVSS VectorVendor: Ping Identity

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Vulnerable system: Confidentiality
High
Vulnerable system: Integrity
None
Vulnerable system: Availability
None
Subsequent system: Confidentiality
High
Subsequent system: Integrity
High
Subsequent system: Availability
High

DescriptionCVE.org

A role-based access control issue was identified in the administrative expression evaluation functionality. This could allow users with certain administrative roles to access expression testing capabilities beyond their intended permissions.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

PingFederate, a critical identity broker managing enterprise authentication, contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing lower-privileged administrators to access high-privilege expression evaluation functionality. Since PingFederate orchestrates authentication and authorization decisions across connected applications, compromising this capability enables unauthorized policy modifications that cascade throughout the entire identity ecosystem.

Business Impact: Severe
Compensating Controls

Restrict firewall access to expression evaluation endpoints to high-privilege administrative roles only; disable expression testing if operationally feasible; enforce multi-factor authentication for all PingFederate administrators; enable detailed audit logging with real-time alerts on expression evaluation; conduct monthly administrative access reviews; implement role-based access controls limiting lower-privilege admins from authentication infrastructure tools.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 89% exploitable
Prevalence
High
widely deployed enterprise identity federation server across large organizations
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

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.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact
Very High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

42
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +42
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0
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