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Backstage EUVDEUVD-2026-94375

| CVE-2026-106562 MEDIUM
Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (CWE-754)
2026-10-07 GitHub_M GHSA-9325-vq29-gp3v
4.3
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: GitHub_M
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Attack ChainAIDerived

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

  1. Access
    Authenticate to Backstage portal
  2. Exploit
    Issue search query under a DENY policy
  3. Execution
    Empty type filter skips index restriction
  4. Impact
    Receive policy-denied documents

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A10:2025 - Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions
ASVS 5.0
V16 - Security Logging and Error Handling Unusual condition handling
Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires a deployment with permission.enabled set to true AND an Elasticsearch or OpenSearch search backend (not Backstage's default in-memory Lucene engine), plus an authenticated user who is subject to a DENY policy for one or more search document types. The concrete trigger is the permitted-document-type list resolving to empty, which caused the search engine to run an unfiltered query across all indices rather than returning no results. Limiting factors: the attacker must already hold a valid Backstage account (PR:L), the permissions framework must be explicitly enabled, the backend must be ES/OpenSearch, and the user must actually be governed by a DENY policy - deployments without permissions enabled or using the default search engine are not affected.

Impact

This is a genuine but low-urgency information-disclosure issue, not a high-priority emergency. The provided CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N = 4.3 Medium) is internally consistent with the description: a network-reachable search API, low attack complexity, requiring an already-authenticated user (PR:L), with only limited confidentiality impact and no integrity or availability effect. No EPSS score, no CISA KEV listing, and no public exploit were provided in the intelligence, so exploitation status is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' There is no conflict among the available signals - a low-ish CVSS, absence of KEV/EPSS/POC, and a precondition-heavy trigger all point the same direction: a real authorization-boundary defect worth patching on a normal cadence rather than an actively exploited threat. The main caveat is that impact depends entirely on how sensitive the indexed documents are and how broadly DENY policies are relied upon; in a multi-tenant portal the confidentiality consequence could matter more than the 'Low' rating suggests. Note the CWE is CWE-754 (improper check for exceptional conditions), which matches the root cause (an empty permitted-type list mishandled) better than the 'Authentication Bypass' tag, which overstates the issue - this is authorization/permission-filter bypass by an already-authenticated user, not an authentication bypass.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An authenticated Backstage user who is subject to a DENY permission policy for certain search document types issues a normal search query. Because an empty permitted-type list caused the Elasticsearch/OpenSearch engine to query all indices instead of returning empty results, the user receives documents that policy should have withheld. No public exploit code is referenced; exploitation requires only a valid account in a deployment with permission.enabled=true and an ES/OpenSearch backend.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 07, 2026

Permission-filtered search in Backstage deployments that use an Elasticsearch or OpenSearch backend can return documents that a DENY policy should have withheld, because an empty list of permitted document types causes the engine to issue an unfiltered query across all indices instead of returning zero results. Only authenticated Backstage users (CVSS PR:L) are positioned to trigger this, and only when permission.enabled is set to true, the search backend is Elasticsearch/OpenSearch rather than the default in-memory engine, and the user is actually governed by a DENY policy for one or more search document types; the impact is limited to confidentiality (C:L) with no integrity or availability effect. The vendor has released fixes in @backstage/plugin-search-backend 2.1.6 and @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch 1.8.7 (Backstage release v1.54.1), and there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis. Consistent with our independent assessment, this is a genuine but low-urgency information-disclosure issue rather than a high-priority emergency.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patches are available: upgrade @backstage/plugin-search-backend to 2.1.6 or later and @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch to 1.8.7 or later, ideally by moving to the Backstage v1.54.1 release (https://github.com/backstage/backstage/releases/tag/v1.54.1) and applying the upstream fix commit 2d5d3e77d630455d6d48cfa8f31fd3c126fd6f29. Details are in advisory GHSA-9325-vq29-gp3v. If immediate upgrade is not possible, compensating controls include temporarily setting permission.enabled to false, which closes the unfiltered-query path but also disables all permission-based filtering across Backstage and is not acceptable for environments that rely on that framework; alternatively, switch the search engine to the default in-memory implementation, which removes the vulnerable query path but sacrifices Elasticsearch/OpenSearch scalability, relevance tuning, and cross-index features. Reviewing DENY policies to avoid configurations where a user's permitted-type set resolves to empty reduces exposure but is not a reliable substitute for the patch, since the defect is in the empty-list handling rather than in any specific policy. Because the issue requires an authenticated account (PR:L) and a non-default configuration, prioritize patching behind existing authentication controls rather than as an emergency change.

Affected VersionsENISA

plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch < 1.8.7
backstage < 1.54.1
plugin-search-backend < 2.1.6

Affected Packages

npm @backstage/plugin-search-backend fix: 2.1.6
npm @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch fix: 1.8.7
euvd backstage fix: 1.54.1
euvd plugin_search_backend fix: 2.1.6
euvd plugin_search_backend_module_elasticsearch fix: 1.8.7

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 5 packages in npm, euvd

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

Technical ContextAI · show details

Backstage's search subsystem builds queries through a pluggable search engine abstraction; when the permissions framework (permission.enabled) is active, the search backend is expected to translate a user's authorized document types into the filter passed to the engine. CWE-754 (Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions) describes the root cause here: the empty-array edge case was not handled, so a permitted-type list that resolved to zero entries was treated as 'no type filter' rather than 'no types allowed'. Elasticsearch and OpenSearch interpret a missing or empty type filter as a match-all query, so the engine ran a broad query across every index it manages instead of returning empty results. The upstream fix adds a guard so that an empty document type list short-circuits to empty results without querying the backend (see the ElasticSearchSearchEngine test 'should return empty results without querying when types is an empty array' and the search-backend changeset 'Fixed a bug where the search engine could receive an unfiltered query when no document types were permitted'). CPE data identifies the affected packages as backstage:backstage, @backstage:plugin-search-backend, and @backstage:plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (GitHub_M) PRIMARY 4.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
vuln.today AI 4.3 MEDIUM

Authenticated user over the network (PR:L, AV:N, AC:L) reads policy-denied search documents, yielding limited confidentiality impact only (C:L, I:N, A:N).

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Red Hat 4.3 MEDIUM

Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).

CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

1
Patch available
Oct 07, 2026 - 16:02 EUVD

DescriptionCVE.org

Backstage is an open framework for building developer portals. Prior to 2.1.6 in @backstage/plugin-search-backend and 1.8.7 in @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch, search engine permission filtering could return documents denied by policy. An authenticated Backstage user subject to a DENY policy for search document types could receive unauthorized results in deployments with permission.enabled set to true and an Elasticsearch or OpenSearch backend. This issue is fixed in @backstage/plugin-search-backend 2.1.6 and @backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch 1.8.7.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 91% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
popular CNCF developer portal, but widespread rather than universal deployment
Threat Intel
1
1 source
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment GHSA Vendor GitHub

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 MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
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· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

22
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +22
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.

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Vendor StatusVendor

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