CVE-2026-43913: Vaultwarden incorrect authorization in organization vault purge

CVE-2026-43913 · Severity: high · CVSS 8.1 · Published 2026-05-11

Vaultwarden is an open-source password management server compatible with the Bitwarden ecosystem. A security flaw allows a user who has been invited as an organization owner, but not yet fully confirmed by an existing administrator, to permanently delete the entire organization's vault. This results in the immediate and irreversible loss of all shared passwords, credentials, and file attachments for the affected organization.

Technologies: Dani-Garcia Vaultwarden. Vendors: Dani-Garcia.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-43913 exploited in the wild?
No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-43913 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-43913?
High severity, with a CVSS score of 8.1, published 11 May 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?
Dani-Garcia Vaultwarden <= 1.35.4.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-43913?
A patch was published on 2026-05-11: Fix released in version 1.35.5 Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2026-43913 attacked?
It is attacked over the network, in a network appliance.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-43913?
Check whether you run Dani-Garcia Vaultwarden at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

Technical details

An authorization bypass exists in the 'POST /api/ciphers/purge' endpoint of Vaultwarden. The application uses a two-step invitation process where a user transitions from 'Invited' to 'Accepted' upon accepting an invite, and finally to 'Confirmed' after administrator approval. The vulnerable endpoint verifies that a user has the 'Owner' role but fails to check if their membership status is 'Confirmed'. An authenticated attacker with 'Accepted' status can exploit this to hard-delete all ciphers and attachments within the organization. This vulnerability is addressed in version 1.35.5 by enforcing confirmed status checks on destructive organization-wide operations.

Affected products

  • dani-garcia Vaultwarden <= 1.35.4

Timeline

  • 2026-04-25: advisory: GitHub security advisory published by maintainers
  • 2026-05-11: disclosed: CVE-2026-43913 published to NVD
  • 2026-05-11: patched: Fix released in version 1.35.5

References

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