CVE-2026-12878 Overview
CVE-2026-12878 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Codefresh continuous integration and delivery platform. An authenticated user can invoke a specific API endpoint to elevate their account to Admin permissions. The flaw is classified as CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management and is exploitable over the network with low attack complexity.
Critical Impact
Any authenticated Codefresh user can gain full administrative control over the platform, compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of pipelines, secrets, and connected build artifacts.
Affected Products
- Codefresh platform (affected versions per vendor advisory)
- Codefresh CI/CD API endpoints exposing privilege-modifying operations
- Environments where multiple non-admin users share a Codefresh tenant
Discovery Timeline
- 2026-08-25 - CVE CVE-2026-12878 published to NVD
- 2026-08-25 - Last updated in NVD database
- Vendor advisory published as Codefresh Security Advisory SA2026-01
Technical Details for CVE-2026-12878
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability resides in an authenticated API endpoint within the Codefresh platform that fails to enforce role-based authorization on privilege-changing operations. An attacker who already holds valid credentials for the tenant can call the endpoint and grant their own account Admin rights. Because the flaw lives in an authorization check rather than in authentication, credential controls such as multi-factor authentication do not block exploitation once a session is established.
Codefresh operates as a CI/CD orchestration layer that stores pipeline definitions, integration tokens, cloud credentials, and source-code connectors. Admin permissions grant broad control over these assets. A successful attacker can modify pipelines, exfiltrate secrets, deploy backdoored artifacts, and pivot into connected cloud environments and Git repositories.
Root Cause
The root cause is improper privilege management on a server-side API route. The endpoint accepts a role-elevation request without validating that the caller already possesses the administrative role required to change permissions. This pattern falls under CWE-269 and typically results from a missing authorization middleware check or a client-trusted role field in the request body.
Attack Vector
Exploitation requires network access to the Codefresh API and valid credentials for any account on the target tenant. The attacker sends a crafted request to the vulnerable endpoint, which then assigns Admin permissions to the requesting user. No user interaction is required. Refer to the Codefresh Security Advisory SA2026-01 for endpoint-specific details.
No verified public exploit code is available for CVE-2026-12878.
See the Codefresh advisory for technical remediation details.
Detection Methods for CVE-2026-12878
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected role changes in the Codefresh audit log where a user was elevated to Admin outside of standard onboarding workflows.
- API calls to permission or role management endpoints originating from non-administrator user tokens.
- New pipeline modifications, integration additions, or secret exports performed by recently elevated accounts.
Detection Strategies
- Review Codefresh audit trails for role assignment events and correlate the acting identity with the target identity; self-elevation is a strong signal.
- Alert on any API request to privilege-management routes where the caller lacks a prior Admin grant.
- Baseline normal admin population size and trigger detections when the count changes unexpectedly.
Monitoring Recommendations
- Forward Codefresh audit and API logs to a centralized SIEM for retention and correlation with identity provider events.
- Monitor downstream systems connected via Codefresh integrations, including Git providers, container registries, and cloud accounts, for anomalous automation activity.
- Track service account token usage that coincides with newly assigned Admin roles.
How to Mitigate CVE-2026-12878
Immediate Actions Required
- Apply the fixed version identified in Codefresh Security Advisory SA2026-01 as the primary remediation.
- Audit the current list of Admin users and revoke any unexpected elevations discovered during review.
- Rotate integration tokens, API keys, and secrets stored in Codefresh if unauthorized Admin activity is suspected.
Patch Information
Codefresh has published remediation guidance in Security Advisory SA2026-01. Customers on SaaS tenants receive the fix automatically once the vendor deploys the patched release. Self-hosted deployments must upgrade to the version specified by the vendor. Confirm the fix is applied by verifying the platform build number against the advisory.
Workarounds
- Restrict Codefresh account provisioning to trusted personnel and enforce least-privilege on all non-admin roles until patched.
- Limit network access to the Codefresh API to known corporate egress ranges where feasible.
- Increase audit-log review cadence and require change-management approval for any role modification.
# Review current Codefresh administrators via the CLI
codefresh get user --output json | jq '.[] | select(.roles[]? == "Admin") | {name, email, roles}'
# Revoke Admin from an unauthorized account (replace USER_ID)
codefresh patch user USER_ID --roles User
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
