7.1
HIGH CVSS 4.0
CVE-2026-55761
Portainer: Unauthenticated Restore Endpoint Allows Admin Takeover on Uninitialised Portainer Instances
Description

Portainer Community Edition is a lightweight service delivery platform for containerized applications that can be used to manage Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes and ACI environments. In versions 2.39.0 through 2.39.3 and 2.40.0 until 2.43.0, unauthenticated restore and administrator initialization endpoints (/api/restore and /api/users/admin/init) remain accessible during the five-minute setup window for uninitialized instances, allowing a network attacker to restore a crafted backup or create the first administrator account and gain full administrative access. This issue is fixed in versions 2.39.4 and 2.43.0.

INFO

Published Date :

July 8, 2026, 4:16 p.m.

Last Modified :

July 8, 2026, 5:17 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-55761 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

No affected product recoded yet

CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
CVSS 4.0 HIGH [email protected]
Solution
Update Portainer CE to a fixed version to prevent unauthorized administrative access during setup.
  • Update Portainer CE to version 2.39.4 or later.
  • Update Portainer CE to version 2.43.0 or later.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-55761 is associated with the following CWEs:

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2026-55761 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-55761 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Jul. 08, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added SSVC {'id': 'CVE-2026-55761', 'role': 'CISA Coordinator', 'options': [{'exploitation': 'none'}, {'automatable': 'no'}, {'technicalImpact': 'partial'}], 'version': '2.0.3', 'timestamp': '2026-07-08T15:51:27.827566Z'}
  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Jul. 08, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Affected [{'vendor': 'portainer', 'product': 'portainer', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '>= 2.39.0, < 2.39.4'}]}]
    Added Description Portainer Community Edition is a lightweight service delivery platform for containerized applications that can be used to manage Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes and ACI environments. In versions 2.39.0 through 2.39.3 and 2.40.0 until 2.43.0, unauthenticated restore and administrator initialization endpoints (/api/restore and /api/users/admin/init) remain accessible during the five-minute setup window for uninitialized instances, allowing a network attacker to restore a crafted backup or create the first administrator account and gain full administrative access. This issue is fixed in versions 2.39.4 and 2.43.0.
    Added CVSS V4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
    Added CWE CWE-287
    Added Reference https://github.com/portainer/portainer/commit/49f19107cf9a3540cbe406c9eb7f24390e1af02b
    Added Reference https://github.com/portainer/portainer/commit/d2b56efcb4e43c4168bb6688eee9f6bf22867312
    Added Reference https://github.com/portainer/portainer/issues/2770
    Added Reference https://github.com/portainer/portainer/releases/tag/2.39.4
    Added Reference https://github.com/portainer/portainer/releases/tag/2.43.0
    Added Reference https://github.com/portainer/portainer/security/advisories/GHSA-x626-fcwx-f5pc
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.