Summary
Open WebUI: Admin demoted through SSO role sync keeps read and write access to all users' notes
A user who is demoted from admin by an identity provider keeps admin-level read and write access to every user's notes, over any Socket.IO connection that was already open when the demotion happened. Open WebUI caches the user's role on the socket at connection time, and the two SSO role-sync paths, the reverse-proxy trusted role header and OAuth role mapping, changed the role in the database without tearing that cached session down. Only the admin user-management endpoints invalidated sessions, so a demotion driven by the identity provider left the old privileges live on the socket.
Preconditions
A role-sync SSO mode has to be enabled. Either trusted-header authentication with WEBUI_AUTH_TRUSTED_ROLE_HEADER set, which is unset by default, or OAuth with role mapping enabled, which is off by default. Deployments that change roles only through the admin panel are not affected, because that path already invalidated the user's sockets.
The account has to be an admin at the moment it opens a Socket.IO connection, has to keep that connection open across the demotion, and has to be demoted through the SSO path rather than through the admin panel. Signing out, reloading the page, or any network interruption ends the exposure, because the reconnect reads a fresh role from the database.
Root cause
Affected components:
backend/open_webui/routers/auths.py, the trusted-header role sync in the sign-in handler.backend/open_webui/utils/oauth.py, the OAuth role sync run on login.backend/open_webui/socket/main.py, which caches the user record on the socket and authorizes the collaborative-notes handlers against that cached copy.
Session invalidation on role change was added as an explicit call, made at the call sites that changed a role rather than inside the role-change itself. The admin user-management endpoints made that call, the two SSO sync paths did not, and nothing else refreshed the role cached on an open socket. The socket keep-alive rewrites the cached record to reset the idle timer and preserves the stale role while doing so, so a connection that stays active is never reaped. Because the notes handlers grant full access to any note when the cached role reads admin, the gap turned into read and write access over all notes for as long as the connection lived.
Proof of concept
Deploy Open WebUI with trusted-header authentication and WEBUI_AUTH_TRUSTED_ROLE_HEADER set, or with OAuth role mapping enabled. Sign in as an admin and leave the browser open on a page holding a Socket.IO connection. Demote the account through the identity provider, meaning the next sign-in carries the role header set to user, or the account's group is changed at the OAuth provider. The database role is now user.
Over the connection that is still open, join and edit another user's note by its id. Both are granted, because the role cached on that socket still reads admin. Performing the same demotion through the admin panel instead drops the connection and revokes the access, which is the behaviour the SSO paths were missing.
This was established by source inspection against 0.11.0 rather than by an executed exploit.
Credits
Reported by @mtholmquist.
Impact
Until the socket closes, the demoted account can open and edit any user's note through the collaborative-notes socket handlers, which grant admins access to every note. That is read and write access to other users' private notes, held by someone the operator has already removed from the admin role.
The rest of the product is not affected. Every HTTP endpoint reads the role fresh from the database on each request, so the demoted account has no admin access to the REST API, no user management, no settings and no model or connection configuration. The exposure ends the moment the connection drops, and the account controls that only by keeping the browser tab open.
The realistic case is off-boarding or a least-privilege downgrade performed in the identity provider, which is a normal administrative action rather than a misconfiguration.
The application does not correctly enforce access controls, allowing a principal to access resources or operations beyond their granted permissions. Typical impact: unauthorized data access or execution of privileged operations.
CVE-2026-87014 has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, high privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (0.11.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Fixed in 0.11.1 by commit ce3c175e260709f359d7e6cbb3132f0572098b95. Role changes and user deletions now publish an internal event, and a session handler tears down that user's Socket.IO connections whenever the event fires, so every path that can change a role invalidates cached sessions instead of only the admin endpoints. Upgrading is sufficient, no configuration change is needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2026-87014? CVE-2026-87014 is a medium-severity incorrect authorization vulnerability in open-webui (pip), affecting versions >= 0.9.0, < 0.11.1. It is fixed in 0.11.1. The application does not correctly enforce access controls, allowing a principal to access resources or operations beyond their granted permissions.
- How severe is CVE-2026-87014? CVE-2026-87014 has a CVSS score of 6.5 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of open-webui are affected by CVE-2026-87014? open-webui (pip) versions >= 0.9.0, < 0.11.1 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-87014? Yes. CVE-2026-87014 is fixed in 0.11.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2026-87014 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-87014 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2026-87014 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2026-87014? Upgrade
open-webuito 0.11.1 or later.