A vulnerability was identified in Weaviate up to 1.37.7. This vulnerability affects the function validateConfig of the file usecases/auth/authentication/apikey/client.go of the component Static API Key Handler. The manipulation of the argument StaticApiKey leads to authorization bypass. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. The complexity of an attack is rather high. It is stated that the exploitability is difficult. The exploit is publicly available and might be used. Upgrading to version 1.38.0-rc.0 is able to resolve this issue. The identifier of the patch is 40f2cc32279f0f8a51016c3c6870a2c0c808e6c0. You should upgrade the affected component.
Weakness
The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
Potential Mitigations
- Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
- Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
- Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
- For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
- For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.
- One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.
Related Attack Patterns
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/104.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/127.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/13.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/17.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/39.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/402.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/45.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/5.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/51.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/59.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/60.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/647.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/668.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/76.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/77.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/87.html
References
- https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/
- https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/commit/40f2cc32279f0f8a51016c3c6870a2c0c808e6c0
- https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/issues/11392
- https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.0-rc.0
- https://vuldb.com/cve/CVE-2026-11500
- https://vuldb.com/submit/835080
- https://vuldb.com/vuln/369120
- https://vuldb.com/vuln/369120/cti