High-Severity Improper Privilege Management Flaw in leantime Tracked as CVE-2026-85990

A high improper privilege management tracked as CVE-2026-85990 has been published in the National Vulnerability Database for leantime, with a CVSS base score of 8.8.

At a glance

CVE

CVE-2026-85990

Product

leantime

CVSS

8.8 High

Weakness

improper privilege management

Exploited

No known exploitation

What is the vulnerability?

The NVD entry states: Leantime is an open source project management system. Prior to 3.10.0, for the provisionally grouped account-creation and plugin-management surfaces, Leantime's JSON-RPC dispatcher in app/Domain/Api/Controllers/Jsonrpc.php exposes public API service methods, while PermissionEnforcer::enforce allows methods that lack a RequiresPermission attribute. A low-privilege authenticated user with an ordinary browser session can send the required X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest header and call leantime.rpc.api.api.createApiKeyWithProjects, which reaches Api::createApiKeyWithProjects, with an attacker-chosen role to create an interactive administrator account. The same missing per-method authorization exposes Plugins::installPlugin, Plugins::enablePlugin, Plugins::disablePlugin, and Plugins::removePlugin to ordinary authenticated users, permitting unauthorized plugin management. The complete provis

Affected versions

CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Is it being exploited?

There is no public confirmation of exploitation at the time of publication. It does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. We will update this report if that changes.

What should you do?

• Identify whether the affected product and versions run in your environment.
• Apply the vendor update listed in the advisory as soon as it is available.
• Limit network exposure of the affected service until it is patched.
• Monitor the vendor advisory for updated guidance or exploitation reports.

What to do and how to stay safe: CVE-2026-85990

• Vulnerability severity scores ignore your specific architecture and context.
• Exploitability depends on network exposure and user behavior, not just code flaws.
• Prioritization requires continuous asset inventory and threat intelligence alignment.

Risk-based vulnerability management focuses your limited resources on the flaws that actually threaten your business. Start by mapping your critical assets and checking for active exploits to prioritize your backlog.

Step-by-step guide: Risk-Based Vulnerability Management: Prioritize Fixes by Actual Danger

General security guidance from the Threat Times newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-85990?

CVE-2026-85990 is a improper privilege management vulnerability in leantime.

How severe is CVE-2026-85990?

It has a CVSS score of 8.8 High.

Is CVE-2026-85990 being exploited?

There is no public confirmation of exploitation at the time of publication.