CVE-2026-54322: Daytona Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2026-54322 Overview

CVE-2026-54322 is a broken access control vulnerability in Daytona, a secure and elastic infrastructure runtime for AI-generated code execution and agent workflows. Versions prior to 0.185.0 improperly authorize role update and delete operations. The organization role endpoints verify the caller as an owner of the organization referenced in the request path. However, they resolve and mutate the target role using only its identifier, without confirming the role belongs to that organization. The flaw is tracked as [CWE-639] Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key. Daytona released version 0.185.0 to address the issue.

Critical Impact
An authenticated user who owns any self-service organization can modify permissions on, or delete, roles belonging to a different organization if they know the target role identifier.

Affected Products

Daytona versions prior to 0.185.0
Self-hosted Daytona deployments exposing organization role management endpoints
Multi-tenant Daytona instances with self-service organization creation enabled

Discovery Timeline

2026-06-23 - CVE-2026-54322 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-54322

Vulnerability Analysis

Daytona exposes organization-scoped administrative endpoints that allow organization owners to manage roles. These endpoints accept an organization identifier in the request path and a role identifier in the request body or URL parameters. The handlers correctly validate that the caller owns the organization referenced in the path. They fail to validate that the targeted role belongs to that same organization. This decoupling between authorization context and target object enables cross-tenant manipulation in a multi-tenant deployment.

Because Daytona allows self-service organization creation, any authenticated user can become an owner of an attacker-controlled organization. The attacker then uses that ownership to issue role update or delete requests against role identifiers belonging to victim organizations.

Root Cause

The root cause is an Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) pattern in the role update and delete handlers. The code authorizes against the path-level organization identifier but performs the mutation against a separately supplied role identifier without enforcing a referential check between them. The fix in 0.185.0 introduces the missing ownership check, ensuring the resolved role belongs to the organization identified in the request path before any mutation occurs.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the Daytona API, valid authenticated credentials, and ownership of at least one organization. The attacker creates a self-service organization to satisfy the owner role requirement. The attacker then issues a request to the role update or delete endpoint, supplying their own organization in the path and the victim organization's role identifier in the role parameter. The server accepts the call and mutates or deletes the unrelated role. Attack complexity is elevated because the attacker must obtain valid role identifiers from the target organization, which are not typically exposed across tenants.

No verified public exploit code is available. See the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-qxvm-pcfm-qc39 for additional technical detail.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-54322

Indicators of Compromise

Role update or delete API calls where the path organization identifier does not match the parent organization of the targeted role identifier in audit logs.
Unexpected deletions or permission changes on roles in organizations whose owners did not initiate the action.
Creation of new organizations followed shortly by role mutation requests targeting identifiers outside that organization.

Detection Strategies

Review Daytona API access logs for PATCH, PUT, or DELETE requests against role management endpoints and correlate the path organization identifier with the database-resolved organization of the role identifier.
Alert on any administrative API user who owns more than one organization and triggers role mutations across multiple organization scopes in a short window.
Replay historical logs against the post-patch authorization check to identify retroactively any requests that would now be rejected.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable verbose audit logging for all organization and role management endpoints, capturing both the caller identity and the resolved object owner.
Forward Daytona application logs to a centralized log platform and build alerts on cross-organization object access patterns.
Monitor self-service organization creation rates and flag accounts that create organizations immediately before issuing role administration requests.

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-54322

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Daytona to version 0.185.0 or later, which contains the authorization fix.
Audit existing roles across all organizations to identify unauthorized modifications or unexpected deletions performed before the upgrade.
Rotate or reissue any role assignments where integrity cannot be verified after the audit.
Restrict self-service organization creation to trusted users where operationally feasible until patching is complete.

Patch Information

The vulnerability is fixed in Daytona 0.185.0. The patch adds the missing check that confirms the target role's parent organization matches the organization identifier supplied in the request path. Refer to the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-qxvm-pcfm-qc39 for the official remediation details.

Workarounds

If immediate patching is not possible, disable self-service organization creation to prevent untrusted users from gaining the owner role required for exploitation.
Restrict network access to the Daytona API to trusted administrative networks until the upgrade is applied.
Increase audit log retention and review frequency for role management endpoints during the mitigation window.