CVE-2026-44555 HIGH

CVE-2026-44555: Open WebUI: Base Model Routing Bypasses Access Control via Model Chaining

Vendor Open-Webui
Product open-webui
Weakness CWE-862 · Missing authorization
Published May 15, 2026
Last update May 15, 2026

CVSS base score

7.6/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Confidentiality High
Integrity Low

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Open WebUI is a self-hosted artificial intelligence platform designed to operate entirely offline. Prior to 0.9.0, Open WebUI supports model composition via base_model_id: a user-defined model (e.g., "Cheap Assistant") can reference an existing base model (e.g., "gpt-4-turbo-restricted") that provides the actual inference capability. When a user queries the composed model, the access control pipeline verifies the user has access to the composed model but never re-verifies access to the chained base model. Additionally, the model creation and import endpoints accept arbitrary base_model_id values without checking that the caller has access to that base model. Combined, this allows any user with the default model creation permission to create a model that chains to a restricted base model — and then invoke it, causing the server to dispatch the request to the restricted base model using the admin-configured API key. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.9.0.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 15, 2026 CVE published
May 15, 2026 Record updated

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