Vulnerability · Published Aug 18, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-57580authentik: Account Takeover via SAML NameID Comment Truncation
Critical 9.4
In plain English
A critical-severity security flaw in authentik from goauthentik. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.6% (higher than 48% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
authentik is an open-source identity provider. Prior to 2026.2.6 and 2026.5.5, an inbound SAML Source configured with the non-default USERNAME_LINK or EMAIL_LINK user-matching mode interprets an XML comment in a NameID differently from the identity provider's signed assertion. An attacker with an account on the source identity provider who can set the account's NameID can inject an XML comment that truncates the value used by authentik to the text before the comment while the signed assertion remains valid. A crafted NameID can therefore truncate to a victim's username or email and bind the attacker's external identity to the victim's existing account. This grants full takeover without the victim's password or the identity provider's private key, and the malicious link persists so later logins succeed without the comment. Sources using the default unique-identifier matching mode and authentik's outbound SAML Provider role are not affected. This issue is fixed in versions 2026.2.6 and 2026.5.5.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| goauthentik | authentik | < 2026.2.6>= 2026.5.0, < 2026.5.5 |
Weakness: CWE-436 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:N
References
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/security/advisories/GHSA-35v6-hv2g-6992 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/pull/24057 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/pull/24062 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/commit/6bd00f09f1f6b5bc5212a10340418fa1b264f02c x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/commit/8704a1b89d7bf46bcef0d3c434c821b937fdecc3 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/releases/tag/version/2026.2.6 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/releases/tag/version/2026.5.5 x_refsource_MISC