---
id: CVE-2026-16772
title: >-
  In Akaunting versions <= 3.1.21, low‑privileged authenticated users can modify
  their own account to assign themselves the admin role ID, granting full
  administrator privileges
summary: >-
  In Akaunting versions <= 3.1.21, low‑privileged authenticated users can modify
  their own account to assign themselves the admin role ID, granting full
  administrator privileges. This vulnerability is caused by a flaw in the
  `UpdateUser` j…
severity: high
cvss: 8.1
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N'
cwe:
  - CWE-269
  - CWE-862
vendor: Akaunting
product: Akaunting
affected:
  - Akaunting <= 3.1.21
published: '2026-08-14'
updated: '2026-09-14'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-14T22:16:57.260'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16772'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://vokecyber.com/research/cve-2026-16772-akaunting-privilege-escalation
    label: cret@cert.org
  - url: >-
      https://vokecyber.com/research/cve-2026-16772-akaunting-privilege-escalation
    label: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
  - exploit-available
epss: 0.00249
epssPercentile: 0.14435
exploitAvailable: true
ssvc:
  exploitation: poc
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-08-14T19:47:57.430799Z'
ingestedAt: '2026-09-14T22:16:09.896Z'
---

## Overview

In Akaunting versions <= 3.1.21, low‑privileged authenticated users can modify their own account to assign themselves the admin role ID, granting full administrator privileges. This vulnerability is caused by a flaw in the `UpdateUser` job, which processes user-supplied role assignments via an unconditional `roles()->sync()` call without verifying whether the caller is authorized to manage roles. Users only require the default `update-auth-profile` permission to access the self-update path and assign themselves as admins. The API endpoints are properly permission‑gated and are not affected by this issue. This vulnerability has been remediated in v3.2.0, commit 80ef6d3b154a.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.