CVE-2026-16895 (GCVE-0-2026-16895)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-08-27 03:14 – Updated: 2026-08-27 13:09
VLAI
EPSS
VEX
Title
Authentication Bypass in Metasploit JSON-RPC Service When DB Health Check Fails
Summary
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.
Severity
SSVC
Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical Impact: partial
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2026-08-27 13:09 UTC
CWE
- CWE-305 - Authentication bypass by primary weakness
Assigner
References
2 references
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/pt-metasploit-wr… | vendor-advisory |
| https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/pu… | patch |
Impacted products
1 product
| Vendor | Product | Version | CPE status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rapid7 | Metasploit-framework |
Affected:
0 , < 6.5.2
(custom)
|
guessed |
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| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
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