Vulnerability · Published Oct 6, 2026 · Assigned by Gitea

CVE-2026-96404Gitea installer authentication bypass for existing accounts

High 8.1

In plain English

A high-severity improper authentication in Gitea from Gitea. 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).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)8.1High

Exploit odds (30 days)0.6%top 52.0% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

When Gitea's web installer is reachable against a database that already contains users, such as after `INSTALL_LOCK` has been reset to `false`, submitting the install form with an administrator username matching an existing account issued an authenticated session for that account without verifying its password. If the account is an administrator, the session grants full administrative access, including changing the account's password. Databases with a single user also did not require the reinstall confirmation.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
Gitea	Gitea	0 – through 1.27.3

Weakness: CWE-287 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-9h7g-h754-c8x2 vendor-advisory
Fix: go-gitea/gitea pull request #39400 patch
Gitea 28.0.0 release announcement release-notes
go-gitea/gitea v28.0.0 release release-notes