CVE-2026-40165authentik: SAML NameID XML Comment Injection Enables Authentication Bypass via Identifier Truncation
- 8.7HighCVSS base score
- 0.50%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 56% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
authentik is an open-source identity provider. Versions 2025.12.4 and prior, and versions 2026.2.0-rc1 through 2026.2.2 were vulnerable to Authentication Bypass through SAML NameID XML Comment Injection. Due to how authentik extracted the NameID value from a SAML assertion, it was possible for an attacker to trick authentik into only seeing a part of the NameID value, potentially allowing an attacker to gain access to other accounts. This issue could be exploited on an authentik instance with a SAML Source, where the attacker had an account on the SAML Source and the ability to modify their NameID value (commonly username or E-mail), and XML Signing was enabled. The attacker could modify the SAML assertion given to authentik by injecting a comment within the NameID value, which effectively truncated the NameID value to the snippet before the comment, and gave the attacker access to any user account. This issue has been fixed in versions 2025.12.5 and 2026.2.3.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 41 days later
· 41 days later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High8.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.50% · top 56% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.7.
Affected products
- affected < 2025.12.5
- affected >= 2026.2.0-rc1, < 2026.2.3
References
References3
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/security/advisories/GHSA-9wj8-xv4r-qwrp (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/commit/47dec5c6b7fb4a62bfad2ae8bddf002bde7ba774 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/releases/tag/version%2F2025.12.5 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-31203 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-40165)Record last updated .