Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
-
AccessAuthenticate as delegated user administrator
-
DeliveryCall security.update_user on wazuh superuser
-
ExploitSubmit empty password bypassing reserved-user guard
-
ExecutionOverwrite superuser credentials
-
ImpactLog in as superuser with empty password
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 account holding delegated user-administration rights (the ability to call the security.update_user RBAC endpoint) on Wazuh Manager 4.6.0 through 4.14.7. The specific trigger is sending an empty password value in a user-update request for the reserved wazuh superuser; the empty string evaluates as falsy and skips both the reserved-user guard and password-policy enforcement. Limiting factors: the attacker must already possess privileged (PR:H) user-management access - there is no unauthenticated or low-privilege path - so realistic risk is concentrated in deployments that delegate user administration to less-trusted operators or in post-compromise escalation; no user interaction or non-default configuration beyond having a delegated admin role is required. |
| Impact | This is a genuine high-priority issue for any multi-tenant or role-delegated Wazuh deployment, though not a drive-by threat. The vendor's CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N, score 8.6) describes network-reachable, low-complexity exploitation with no user interaction but requiring HIGH privileges (PR:H) - consistent with the description's requirement for an authenticated 'delegated user administrator'. Impact is full triad compromise (VC:H/VI:H/VA:H) because the flaw yields takeover of the wazuh superuser account, i.e. complete control of the security monitoring platform. No EPSS score, SSVC decision, KEV listing, or POC was provided, so exploitation-probability signals are absent rather than conflicting; per input data this is 'no public exploit identified at time of analysis'. The key tension: raw CVSS is 8.6 (High) and the bug is trivially reliable once prerequisites are met, but the PR:H gate means the attacker must already be a privileged (delegated) administrator - this is primarily a privilege-escalation / insider or post-compromise lateral-movement path rather than an unauthenticated external breach. Prioritize patching where user-administration is delegated to less-trusted operators. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An organization delegates day-to-day Wazuh user management to a junior operator with a limited 'user administrator' role. That operator calls the security.update_user API endpoint targeting the reserved wazuh superuser and submits an empty password; because the reserved-user guard and password policy sit behind a falsy truthiness check, the empty value bypasses both, and the operator then authenticates as the all-powerful wazuh superuser. No public exploit code was identified in the provided data. |
Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.
Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 13, 2026
An authentication bypass in the Wazuh Manager API (versions 4.6.0 through 4.14.7) lets an account that already holds delegated user-administration rights take full control of the reserved wazuh superuser account by submitting an empty password to the user-update endpoint, after which the attacker can authenticate as that superuser with a blank credential. The flaw is a logic error in the security.update_user handling: the reserved-user guard and the password-policy check sit inside a truthiness test, so an empty string evaluates as falsy and both protections are skipped entirely, yielding a complete confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact on the manager (CVSS 8.6 under CVSS 4.0; our independent assessment scores CVSS 3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). Exploitation is not unauthenticated and cannot be triggered by a low-privilege user - it requires a pre-existing privileged (PR:H) role capable of calling the user-update RBAC endpoint - so risk is concentrated in multi-tenant, MSSP, or role-delegated deployments and in post-compromise privilege escalation; confirmed actively exploited status is not present (no CISA KEV listing) and no public exploit code was identified at time of analysis. A vendor patch is available in Wazuh v4.14.8.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade Wazuh Manager to v4.14.8 or later (release tag https://github.com/wazuh/wazuh/releases/tag/v4.14.8; advisory https://github.com/wazuh/wazuh/security/advisories/GHSA-27gv-q7q6-f5qh), applying the update to the manager/API package rather than only to agents, since the vulnerable endpoint lives in the manager API. Until the upgrade is applied, the effective compensating control is to reduce the PR:H prerequisite: audit and revoke delegated RBAC roles that grant user-administration or security.update_user-equivalent permissions to any account that does not strictly require them, remembering that this curtails legitimate delegated administration and support workflows. Directly verify and reset the reserved wazuh superuser credential so it is not an empty string, and treat any evidence of blank-password authentication in manager API logs as an indicator of compromise. Additionally, restrict network access to the Wazuh API port (default 55000) to trusted management networks and place it behind an authenticating reverse proxy, accepting that this limits legitimate remote API clients and automation. Note that because exploitation requires a pre-existing privileged account, credential hygiene and monitoring for unauthorized changes to the wazuh account remain the highest-value detective measures until patched.
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 class is CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization), manifesting as a classic "falsy check" logic bug in the Wazuh Manager's Python-based REST API. The API's RBAC layer exposes a security.update_user operation through which delegated user administrators modify account records; the source logic that is supposed to (a) block modifications to the reserved wazuh superuser and (b) enforce the password policy was nested inside a conditional that only executes when a supplied password value is truthy. Because an empty string in Python evaluates as falsy, supplying a blank password on an update request for the reserved wazuh account skipped both the reserved-user guard and the password-strength enforcement in a single step, leaving the superuser with an empty credential that can then be used for authentication. The affected component is identified by the CPE cpe:2.3:a:wazuh:wazuh-manager:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* (version-wildcarded, meaning the manager package as a whole), and the API is network-reachable by design (AV:N), so the only gate is the attacker's existing authorization level. The upstream fix corpus is tracked in the Wazuh v4.14.8 release, which among other hardening changes also tightened path validation for rule/decoder and CDB list operations and restricted agent-channel upgrade commands - effectively a security-focused maintenance release.
Know when Wazuh Manager gets its next vulnerability
- Watch products and get an email when something new is published
- Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
No credit card · 7-day full trial
Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Network API reachable (AV:N), reliable once triggered (AC:L), but requires an existing delegated user-admin role (PR:H); takeover of superuser yields full C/I/A impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
DescriptionCVE.org
Wazuh versions from 4.6.0 before 4.14.8 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability where security.update_user places the reserved user guard and password policy inside a falsy truthiness check. A delegated user administrator can send an empty password to the user update endpoint, bypassing the reserved user guard to take over the wazuh superuser account and authenticate with empty credentials.
Technical POC Analysis
CWE-863 (incorrect authorization) per the CVE; the PoC self-labels it CWE-697 - CWE-269.
Full technical POC analysis - root cause, step-by-step exploitation and patch breakdown - is part of the Pro and Business plans.
Executive ViewAI
Wazuh Manager API versions 4.6.0 through 4.14.7 contain an authentication bypass that allows an attacker with existing delegated user-administration privileges to seize the reserved superuser account and gain complete control over the manager. Because Wazuh is a central security monitoring platform, a successful exploit could let a malicious insider or compromised admin account disable, alter, or exfiltrate security telemetry across the organization, undermining detection and response capabilities. Leadership should prioritize patching because the flaw affects a trusted security control point and requires only a pre-existing privileged role to escalate to full superuser access.
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
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
More in Wazuh Manager
View allArbitrary file overwrite in Wazuh Manager (3.9.0 through versions prior to 4.14.8) lets an attacker who already controls
Root-level command execution on the Wazuh Manager host is achievable by an authenticated administrator who holds the man
Arbitrary file read as root in Wazuh Manager 4.1.0 through 4.14.7 allows an enrolled agent to inject an upgrade_custom m
Wazuh Manager 4.0.0 through 4.14.7 fails to consult its token revocation blacklist inside the check_token routine, so a
Path traversal in the Wazuh Manager cluster upload handlers (upload_list_file, upload_rule_file, upload_decoder_file) le
Path traversal in Wazuh Manager 4.1.1 through 4.14.7 lets an attacker who has already compromised a cluster worker node
Heap buffer overflow in Wazuh Manager's File Integrity Monitoring alert generation lets an enrolled agent corrupt manage
CPU exhaustion in Wazuh Manager 4.0.0-4.14.6 and 5.0.0-beta2 allows authenticated API users with the allow_run_as permis
Wazuh Manager 4.0.0 through 4.14.7 exposes the plaintext authd.pass agent-enrollment password to authenticated low-privi
Multiple shell injection and untrusted search path vulnerabilities in Wazuh agent and manager (versions 2.1.0 through 4.
Path traversal in Wazuh Manager's delete_rule_file and delete_decoder_file helpers lets an attacker who holds the Wazuh
Path traversal via unsanitized cluster node names in Wazuh Manager 4.0.0 through 4.14.5 enables authenticated cluster pe
EUVD-2026-98673
GHSA-fv2h-v32g-xqfg
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB