CVE-2026-16895 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-16895: Authentication Bypass in Metasploit JSON-RPC Service When DB Health Check Fails

Vendor Rapid7
Product Metasploit-framework
Weakness CWE-305
Published August 27, 2026
Last update August 27, 2026

CVSS base score

5.1/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality
Integrity

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

What the vulnerability does

01Description

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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

August 27, 2026 CVE published
August 27, 2026 Record updated