VulnerabilityAwaiting Analysis

CVE-2026-16895

A logic vulnerability (fail-open condition) has been identified within the Metasploit Framework's JSON-RPC web service interface.

MEDIUM 5.1EPSS 0.16%

Does this matter?

Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.16%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.

Description

A logic vulnerability (fail-open condition) has been identified within the Metasploit Framework's JSON-RPC web service interface. When an exception occurs during the database health check (db.check) and the environment variable MSF_WS_JSON_RPC_API_TOKEN is not explicitly set, the application resets the internal state flag msf.auth_initialized to false. The ApiToken Warden authentication strategy misinterprets this false value as an indicator that authentication is not initialized or required, thereby granting unauthenticated local access to the JSON-RPC request dispatcher.

CVSS 4.0: 5.1 MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
EPSS: 0.16% probability · 6th percentile
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-305
Source: cve@rapid7.com

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.