Vulnerability Snapshot
CVE-2026-116289 is rated CRITICAL — exploitation is trivial or already observed in the wild and impact is severe. Patch immediately, not on the next maintenance window.
Executive Summary
Gitea did not reject personal access tokens restricted to public resources (public-only) on the organization Actions runner registration-token endpoint, and the runner registered with the resulting token was not limited to public repositories. Holding only such a token with write:organization that belongs to an owner of a public organization, an attacker could register an organization-level runner and receive jobs of the organization's private repositories that have Actions enabled, including the workflow content, Actions secrets and variables, and a task token with access to the private repository. The issue widens what the restricted token can reach; it gives nothing beyond what the owner's full account can already do.
Why It Matters
CVE-2026-116289 is rated CRITICAL severity, requiring immediate attention from security teams.
CVSS Base Score: 9.1/10
🛡️What Defenders Should Check
Use Vulnios to continuously monitor your exposure to CVE-2026-116289 and similar vulnerabilities.
References & Sources
How Vulnios Detects This
Vulnios scans for this vulnerability using Trivy and Grype for SBOM-based CVE matching and Vulnios CVE feed continuous monitoring against your asset inventory. Run a scan against your environment to see whether you are exposed; findings are linked back to the original CVE record so triage starts with the patch path already known.
AI Security Advisor
Powered by Gemini
Get AI-powered security recommendations tailored to this specific threat — including risk assessment, detection guidance, MITRE ATT&CK mapping, and actionable remediation steps.
Sources
Related Threat Alerts
- QNAP says hackers breaching NAS devices in Plex2Shell attacks
- OpenAI Launches GPT-6 Cyber After AI Helps Find 81 Firefox Flaws, 948 Linux Exploits
- Installing the Fix for an Exploited WordPress Flaw Can Expose Some Sites One Last Time
- Hackers Target OpenSSH SSHole Flaw Within Hours of Disclosure, Gain Root on Honeypot
- Critical Vulnerability: CVE-2026-123832
- Critical Vulnerability: CVE-2026-122193
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2026-116289?
CVE-2026-116289 is a critical-severity vulnerability tracked under the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures program. Gitea did not reject personal access tokens restricted to public resources (public-only) on the organization Actions runner registration-token endpoint, and the runner registered with the resulting
Am I affected?
Affected technology is listed in the Affected Products section above. If your asset inventory contains any of them, assume in-scope until you can prove otherwise.
How urgent is the response?
Critical: do not wait for your normal patch cycle. Verify exposure today, apply the vendor patch immediately, and add detection rules for any post-exploit indicators.
How do I remediate?
Apply the vendor patch listed in the upstream advisory linked under Sources. If the patch is not yet available, follow the vendor-supplied workaround (often a config flag or feature disable) and add detections for the published exploit pattern in your SIEM. Re-scan after the patch lands to confirm the finding clears.
Where can I track exploitation activity?
Watch CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog for CVE-2026-116289. Cross-reference with public exploit databases and your own SIEM/IDS for indicator-of-compromise patterns. Vulnios tracks KEV status automatically and surfaces it on the asset findings view.
How does Vulnios help with this?
Vulnios continuously cross-references your asset inventory against the live CVE feed (NVD, vendor advisories, CISA KEV, and curated OSINT). When a new CVE matches your environment, you get a prioritized finding with the severity, KEV status, exploit-prediction (EPSS), and a direct path to the vendor patch. You can start a free scan from the homepage.
Protect Your Organization
Monitor CVEs, scan for vulnerabilities, and get real-time threat alerts — all in one platform.
Weekly threat digest
KEV-listed exploits and vendor advisories, every Monday.
One email a week. Unsubscribe any time.
Get instant alerts on Telegram
Join our public channel for real-time critical CVE alerts.
Follow @vulnios