CVE-2025-6707 Overview
CVE-2025-6707 is an authorization vulnerability in MongoDB Server. Under certain conditions, an authenticated user request may execute with stale privileges after an authorized administrator intentionally changes those privileges. The flaw is tracked under CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization and affects multiple MongoDB Server release branches. An authenticated attacker with low privileges can retain effective access that should have been revoked, resulting in limited confidentiality and integrity impact on data managed by the database.
Critical Impact
Authenticated users may continue executing requests with previously granted privileges after an administrator revokes or modifies those privileges, undermining access control changes.
Affected Products
- MongoDB Server 5.0 prior to 5.0.31
- MongoDB Server 6.0 prior to 6.0.24
- MongoDB Server 7.0 prior to 7.0.21 and MongoDB Server 8.0 prior to 8.0.5
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-06-26 - CVE-2025-6707 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-6707
Vulnerability Analysis
The issue stems from how MongoDB Server evaluates authorization state for authenticated sessions. When an administrator modifies a user's roles or privileges, in-flight or subsequent requests from that user may be evaluated against a cached, pre-change privilege set. The result is an authorization decision that does not reflect the administrator's intended change.
The vulnerability requires an existing authenticated session with low privileges. Impact is limited to confidentiality and integrity of data the stale privileges continue to grant. Availability is unaffected. The condition depends on timing between the administrative change and the user request evaluation path within the server.
Root Cause
The root cause is incorrect authorization enforcement [CWE-863]. The server does not consistently invalidate or refresh a session's privilege context after an authorized privilege change. Requests processed during this window are evaluated against outdated authorization data, allowing operations that should have been denied under the new policy.
Attack Vector
Exploitation requires network access to the MongoDB Server and valid low-privilege credentials. An attacker who anticipates or observes a privilege change can continue to issue requests that leverage the prior privilege set. No user interaction is required beyond the attacker's own authenticated session. Additional details are available in the MongoDB Bug Report SERVER-93497.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-6707
Indicators of Compromise
- Database operations executed by a user after an administrative role revocation that reference collections or commands the updated role no longer permits.
- Audit log entries showing successful commands from a session established prior to a revokeRolesFromUser or updateUser event.
- Anomalous read or write activity from service accounts immediately following a privilege change window.
Detection Strategies
- Correlate MongoDB audit log privilege-change events (revokeRolesFromUser, updateUser, dropRole) with subsequent authenticated operations from the same user identity.
- Alert when a session established before a role change continues issuing commands against resources tied to the removed privileges.
- Baseline normal per-user command patterns and flag deviations that emerge in the minutes following an administrative privilege modification.
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable MongoDB auditing with the authCheck filter to capture authorization decisions on sensitive namespaces.
- Ship MongoDB audit and access logs to a centralized analytics platform for correlation with identity and administrative-change events.
- Track long-lived client connections and flag sessions that persist across privilege-change events for review.
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-6707
Immediate Actions Required
- Upgrade MongoDB Server to a fixed release: 5.0.31, 6.0.24, 7.0.21, or 8.0.5 or later on the corresponding branch.
- Inventory running MongoDB deployments and identify instances on affected 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 versions.
- After any role or privilege change, terminate active sessions for the affected user to force re-authentication and privilege re-evaluation.
Patch Information
MongoDB has released fixed versions on each supported branch. Apply 5.0.31, 6.0.24, 7.0.21, or 8.0.5 (or a later release on the same branch) to remediate the stale-privilege condition. Reference the MongoDB Bug Report SERVER-93497 for tracking and release information.
Workarounds
- Force disconnect of affected user sessions after any privilege modification, for example using db.killOp() against active operations tied to the user.
- Restrict administrative privilege-change workflows to maintenance windows where client sessions can be terminated safely.
- Enforce least privilege on service and application accounts to reduce the value of any privileges that could persist through the stale window.
# Configuration example: terminate a user's active sessions after a role change
mongosh --eval 'db.getSiblingDB("admin").runCommand({ revokeRolesFromUser: "appUser", roles: [{ role: "readWrite", db: "reports" }] })'
mongosh --eval 'db.getSiblingDB("admin").runCommand({ killAllSessionsByPattern: [{ users: [{ user: "appUser", db: "admin" }] }] })'
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