CVE-2026-58473: Cognee Cognee Allows Non-superusers To Overwrite Vulnerability

CRITICAL
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-49f7-whx5-4256
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CVSS 9.1
CWE-306
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-58473 is a CRITICAL (CVSS 9.1) cognee allows non-superusers to overwrite vulnerability (CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function) affecting Cognee libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves cognee allows non-superusers to overwrite global llm configuration. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 1.5.0.

CVE-2026-58473 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-58473
GHSA Identifier GHSA-49f7-whx5-4256
Severity CRITICAL
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 9.1
CWE Classification CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function
Affected Product Cognee
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 9.1

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability None (A:N)

How to Fix CVE-2026-58473

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Cognee dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

cognee fixed: 1.5.0 
pip install cognee>=1.5.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

pip show cognee

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2026-58473, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show cognee

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Cognee in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 1.5.0), your application is affected.

Note: The pip show cognee command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function, where the product does not perform any authentication for functionality that requires a provable user identity or consumes a significant amount of resources. In Cognee, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

Cognee before 1.2.0 contains an improper access control vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to overwrite the global LLM provider configuration by self-registering an account and calling the settings endpoint, which performs no admin or superuser check. Attackers can redirect all LLM operations instance-wide to an attacker-controlled endpoint by exploiting the process-wide singleton configuration cache, enabling exfiltration of prompts, uploaded documents, extracted entities, and knowledge graph content from all users.

CVE-2026-58473 Affected Cognee Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
1.5.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
cognee
pypi/cognee
PyPI
< 1.5.0
1.5.0

References

NVD — CVE-2026-58473 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-58473
Cognee Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/issues/3084
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/commit/10971db1b0bd97e88f96bd2a9ffb3edb7b22bcd0
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/commit/d10b1b77e2157c6238fd4d1acb1923a048991699
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/commit/ebcf82412d0954f5c5018444f7eee8d96fee5113
Cognee Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee
Cognee Release RELEASE
https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/releases/tag/v1.2.0
www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cognee-u... WEB
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cognee-unauthorized-llm-configuration-overwrite-via-api-v1-settings

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-58473?
CVE-2026-58473 is a security vulnerability in Cognee involving Cognee allows non-superusers to overwrite global LLM configuration under CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function.
Which Cognee versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 1.5.0 across affected packages: cognee.
What version fixes CVE-2026-58473?
Upgrading to 1.5.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is cognee affected?
Yes, cognee is affected in releases prior to 1.5.0. Upgrade your dependency to 1.5.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-58473?
CVE-2026-58473 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.1 (CRITICAL) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-58473?
CVE-2026-58473 is classified under CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function (The product does not perform any authentication for functionality that requires a provable user identity or consumes a significant amount of resources.).
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2026-58473?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show cognee'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-49f7-whx5-4256",
  "modified" : "2026-09-03T20:10:21Z",
  "published" : "2026-07-07T21:31:36Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-58473" ],
  "summary" : "Cognee allows non-superusers to overwrite global LLM configuration",
  "details" : "Cognee before 1.2.0 contains an improper access control vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to overwrite the global LLM provider configuration by self-registering an account and calling the settings endpoint, which performs no admin or superuser check. Attackers can redirect all LLM operations instance-wide to an attacker-controlled endpoint by exploiting the process-wide singleton configuration cache, enabling exfiltration of prompts, uploaded documents, extracted entities, and knowledge graph content from all users.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "cognee"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "1.5.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-58473"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/issues/3084"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/commit/10971db1b0bd97e88f96bd2a9ffb3edb7b22bcd0"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/commit/d10b1b77e2157c6238fd4d1acb1923a048991699"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/commit/ebcf82412d0954f5c5018444f7eee8d96fee5113"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/topoteretes/cognee/releases/tag/v1.2.0"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cognee-unauthorized-llm-configuration-overwrite-via-api-v1-settings"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-306" ],
    "severity" : "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-09-03T20:10:21Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-07-07T21:17:29Z"
  }
}