CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2026-27198 — Formwork is a flat file-based Content Management System (CMS)

High CVSS 8.8

Formwork is a flat file-based Content Management System (CMS). In versions 2.0.0 through 2.3.3, the application fails to properly enforce role-based authorization during account creation. Although the system validates that the specified role exists, it does not verify whether the current user has sufficient privileges to assign highly privileged roles such as admin. As a result, an authenticated user with the editor role can create a new account with administrative privileges, leading to full administrative access and complete compromise of the CMS. This issue has been fixed in version 2.3.4.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.8 (3.1)
Published
2026-02-21
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-269

Affected products

  • formwork_project / formwork

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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