WireGuard Portal Vulnerable to Privilege Escalation to Admin via User Self-Update
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Privilege escalation, Security bypass
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-269 and CWE-863.
Summary
WireGuard Portal (or wg-portal) is a web-based configuration portal for WireGuard server management. Prior to version 2.1.3, any authenticated non-admin user can become a full administrator by sending a single PUT request to their own user profile endpoint with `"IsAdmin": true` in the JSON body. After logging out and back in, the session picks up admin privileges from the database. When a user updates their own profile, the server parses the full JSON body into the user model, including the `IsAdmin` boolean field. A function responsible for preserving calculated or protected attributes pins certain fields to their database values (such as base model data, linked peer count, and authentication data), but it does not do this for `IsAdmin`. As a result, whatever value the client sends for `IsAdmin` is written directly to the database. After the exploit, the attacker has full admin access to the WireGuard VPN management portal. The problem was fixed in v2.1.3. The docker images for the tag 'latest' built from the master branch also include the fix.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| h44z | wg-portal | before 2.1.3 | 2.1.3 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/h44z/wg-portal (Go) | before 2.1.3 | 2.1.3 | Patch available | GHSA-5rmx-256w-8mj9 |
- wg-portal Vendorh44z Affected before 2.1.3 Fixed in 2.1.3 Patch available CNA
- github.com/h44z/wg-portal (Go) Vendor— Affected before 2.1.3 Fixed in 2.1.3 Patch available GHSA-5rmx-256w-8mj9
Remediation
- Fix · CNA wg-portal (h44z) Fixed in 2.1.3
- Fix · GHSA-5rmx-256w-8mj9 github.com/h44z/wg-portal (Go) Fixed in 2.1.3 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-27899
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-5rmx-256w-8mj9
References
Other 4
- https://github.com/h44z/wg-portal/commit/fe4485037a25426446ced95050e9498f477bf71d
- https://github.com/h44z/wg-portal
- https://github.com/h44z/wg-portal/releases/tag/v2.1.3
- https://hub.docker.com/layers/wgportal/wg-portal/v2.1.3/images/sha256-39acfab55598a74e561828b8cb639515ddc222d6c884996111f5ef235aba9e7b
More h44z vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-39390 Improper authorization in h44z wg-portal CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 4.3
Sources
- CVE-2026-27899 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-27899 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-5rmx-256w-8mj9 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences