# CVE-2026-45248: Hedera Guardian authentication bypass in demo registered-users endpoint

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-45248-hedera-guardian-authentication-bypass-in-demo-registered-users  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-05-14. Updated: 2026-05-27  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-45248 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.3 · Published 2026-05-14

Hedera Guardian, an open-source solution for managing digital environmental assets, contains a security flaw that allows anyone to access a list of registered users without logging in. An attacker can exploit this to view sensitive account details, including usernames, system roles, and unique digital identifiers (DIDs). This exposure could lead to targeted phishing attacks or further unauthorized access to the system's policy management functions.

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-45248 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-45248 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-45248?** Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 5.3, published 14 May 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** Hedera Guardian up to and including 3.5.1.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-45248?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-45248 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a software library.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-45248?** Check whether anything you run is named in the advisory. 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 authentication bypass vulnerability exists in Hedera Guardian through version 3.5.1 due to a missing authentication guard on the 'GET /api/v1/demo/registered-users' endpoint (CWE-306). The root cause is the absence of the @Auth decorator in the api-gateway service, which is present on sibling endpoints. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can query this endpoint to obtain a JSON response containing usernames, Hedera Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), parent registry DIDs, system roles, and policy role assignments for all users in the database. A fix has been proposed in the project's GitHub repository (Pull Request #6076) to apply the necessary permission guards.

## Affected products

- Hedera Guardian up to and including 3.5.1

## Timeline

- 2026-05-14: disclosed: Vulnerability disclosed and pull request created
- 2026-05-14: advisory: Initial advisory published by VulnCheck
- 2026-05-27: other: NVD record updated with CPE information

## References

- [https://github.com/hashgraph/guardian/pull/6076](https://github.com/hashgraph/guardian/pull/6076)
- [https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/hedera-guardian-authentication-bypass-information-disclosure](https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/hedera-guardian-authentication-bypass-information-disclosure)