NVD / CVE Program· CNA GitHub_M

CVE-2022-46172: authentik allows existing authenticated users to create arbitrary accounts

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 25/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.56% (FIRST EPSS).
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

authentik is an open-source Identity provider focused on flexibility and versatility. In versions prior to 2022.10.4, and 2022.11.4, any authenticated user can create an arbitrary number of accounts through the default flows. This would circumvent any policy in a situation where it is undesirable for users to create new accounts by themselves. This may also affect other applications as these new basic accounts would exist throughout the SSO infrastructure. By default the newly created accounts cannot be logged into as no password reset exists by default. However password resets are likely to be enabled by most installations. This vulnerability pertains to the user context used in the default-user-settings-flow, /api/v3/flows/instances/default-user-settings-flow/execute/. This issue has been fixed in versions 2022.10.4 and 2022.11.4.

MediumCVSS 6.4 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded

Published: Dec 28, 2022
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 0.5% · 46th percentile
CWE: CWE-269

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 25 / 40 · 6.4 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.5%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: proof of concept
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 6.4
CNA · GitHub_M: 6.4; agree

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
goauthentik	authentik	cpe:2.3:a:goauthentik:authentik

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

goauthentik authentik2022.10.0 and later · before 2022.10.4
goauthentik authentik2022.11.0 and later · before 2022.11.4

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

goauthentik authentik
- >= 2022.11.0, < 2022.11.4, >= 2022.10.0, < 2022.10.4affected

Same product

goauthentik: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2026-49448authentik: SourceStage bypass via empty POST
39Monitor
CVE-2024-38371Insufficient access control for OAuth2 Device Code flow in authentik
39Monitor
CVE-2023-48228OAuth2: PKCE can be fully circumvented
39Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2022-46145Dec 2, 2022 · authentik vulnerable to unauthorized user creation and potential account takeover
39Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2022-23555Dec 27, 2022 · authentik vulnerable to Improper Authentication via invitation URL token reuse
35Monitor
Later →CVE-2023-26481Mar 3, 2023 · Insufficient user check in FlowTokens by Email stage
26Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
A low-privileged account is enough.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: none
Integrity: low · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: low · the service can be disrupted

Impact can extend beyond the vulnerable component (scope changes).

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: Low
User interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality impact: None
Integrity impact: Low
Availability impact: Low

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L

nvd-primary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml

1kind: ClusterRole
2rules:
3  - apiGroups: ["*"]
4    resources: ["*"]
5    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml

1kind: Role
2metadata:
3  namespace: lodos-system
4rules:
5  - apiGroups: ["apps"]
6    resources: ["deployments"]
7    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Abuse Elevation Control MechanismT1548

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

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