Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate as former KB collaborator
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ExploitReference stale cached knowledge base ID
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ExecutionCall file content endpoint via has_access_to_file flaw
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ImpactDownload or delete owner's private files
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 the attacker to be a FORMER collaborator on a specific Open WebUI knowledge base who previously held read or write grants and was subsequently removed, but whose access survives through a stale cached knowledge base reference evaluated by has_access_to_file (reflected as AT:P in the CVSS vector). The attacker must be an authenticated application user (PR:L) and must target knowledge bases they once had access to. Limiting factors: no path exists for a never-authorized or unauthenticated outsider; the flaw only manifests after a share-then-revoke lifecycle, so single-owner or never-shared knowledge bases are unaffected, and impact is confined to downloading or deleting files within the Open WebUI application. |
| Impact | This is a genuinely low-priority issue despite the 'Authentication Bypass' tag. The vendor-issued CVSS 4.0 base score is 2.3 (Low), and every signal agrees it is minor: the vector is AV:N/AC:L but carries AT:P, meaning a specific attack requirement must hold - the attacker must be a FORMER knowledge base collaborator whose access was revoked but whose stale cached reference persists. PR:L confirms the attacker must already be an authenticated application user, and impact is uniformly Low (VC:L/VI:L/VA:L) with no scope change (SC/SI/SA:N). No EPSS score, SSVC decision, or KEV listing was provided, and there is no public exploit indicator, so exploitation is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis.' There is no signal conflict to flag; rather, all signals converge on a low-severity, insider/ex-collaborator authorization flaw (CWE-863) rather than a widely weaponizable remote vulnerability. The practical risk is bounded to environments that previously shared knowledge bases with users who were later removed - a targeted, trust-relationship-dependent scenario rather than mass exploitation. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A user is granted read or write access to a shared knowledge base in Open WebUI and later has that access revoked, but a stale cached knowledge base reference leaves has_access_to_file still granting them rights. The former collaborator then calls the file content endpoint to download files that were removed, or issues delete requests, affecting even the owner's private knowledge bases. No public exploit code was identified, so exploitation would require an attacker to manually leverage their prior-collaborator session. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 12, 2026
Former collaborators on Open WebUI knowledge bases can keep downloading or deleting files they were previously granted access to, because the has_access_to_file authorization check evaluates a stale cached knowledge base reference after the collaborator has been removed. The flaw affects Open WebUI 0.6.0 through the release immediately preceding 0.11.4, and is only reachable by an authenticated user who previously held a read or write grant on a specific knowledge base and then lost it - a share-then-revoke lifecycle - so single-owner or never-shared knowledge bases are unaffected; impact is confined to file download and deletion inside Open WebUI, including files in the owner's private knowledge bases. Rated low severity (CVSS 4.0 base 2.3; independent assessment CVSS 3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), with no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no confirmed active exploitation (CISA KEV) - a genuinely low-priority issue despite the 'Authentication Bypass' tag.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade to Open WebUI 0.11.4 or later, which is the first release outside the affected '0.6.0 before 0.11.4' range; consult GHSA-9cxp-636w-4997 (https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-9cxp-636w-4997) and the VulnCheck advisory (https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/open-webui-0.6.0-before-0.11.4-improper-access-control-via-stale-file-metadata) for the confirmed fix. Where immediate upgrading is not possible, the highest-value compensating control is to invalidate the stale state directly: restart the Open WebUI process or otherwise flush its cached knowledge base references after every collaborator revocation, since the stale entry is what keeps access alive - the trade-off is downtime and loss of unrelated cache warmth, making this a stopgap rather than a fix. Operators should also audit any knowledge base that has ever had a collaborator removed and consider re-creating or re-uploading the affected files into clean knowledge bases and deleting the originals, which definitively severs the stale reference at the cost of file IDs, links, and any downstream references. Restrict exposure of the file content endpoint to trusted networks or authenticated users only while remediation is pending, and review Open WebUI logs for file downloads or deletions by accounts that no longer hold grants on the corresponding knowledge base - noting that this is detective, not preventive, and will not stop a determined former collaborator.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
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
The vulnerability is a CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization) bug in Open WebUI's has_access_to_file routine, which is the gatekeeper for the file content endpoint and for file deletion. Open WebUI associates uploaded files with knowledge bases and grants access to collaborators (read or write) on those knowledge bases; when a collaborator is removed, the underlying knowledge base reference used by the authorization check can remain cached in a stale state, so a subsequent has_access_to_file evaluation still resolves access through the outdated reference. Because the check trusts a cached object rather than re-resolving current membership, the revocation never takes effect for the lifetime of the stale entry, and the removed user retains the ability to fetch file content or delete files. The attack surface is the network-facing file content endpoint (CPE cpe:2.3:a:open-webui:open-webui:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*), which is why the CVSS vector carries AV:N; however AC:H and AT:P reflect that the attacker must win a specific state precondition (a prior grant that was later revoked and whose cache entry has not been purged), and PR:L reflects that an authenticated application account is mandatory. Robust fixes typically re-fetch or invalidate membership and knowledge base references on every authorization decision - or at minimum on share revocation and file deletion - rather than relying on long-lived cached structures.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Authenticated attacker (PR:L) over network; AC:H reflects the required former-collaborator/stale-cache precondition; low file read, delete, and availability impact within the app (S:U).
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
1DescriptionCVE.org
Open WebUI from 0.6.0 before 0.11.4 contains an improper access control vulnerability in has_access_to_file that lets former knowledge base collaborators keep file access via stale cached knowledge base references. Attackers with read or write grants can download removed files through the file content endpoint or delete them, including from the owner's private knowledge bases.
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
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
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EUVD-2026-97587
GHSA-7f6v-g89v-pwp7
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB