# CVE-2026-72534: Authentik privilege escalation via SCIM provisioning

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-72534-authentik-privilege-escalation-via-scim-provisioning  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-08-11. Updated: 2026-09-25  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-72534 · Severity: high · CVSS 8.8 · Published 2026-08-11

Authentik is an identity provider and access management platform. A vulnerability allows an attacker with limited SCIM provisioning credentials to gain full administrative privileges by creating a SCIM group that matches an existing administrator group name, bypassing access controls and potentially locking out all legitimate administrators.

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-72534 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-72534 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-72534?** High severity, with a CVSS score of 8.8, published 11 August 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** Authentik Security authentik through 2026.5.6.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-72534?** 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-2026-72534 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a hosted service.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-72534?** 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

The vulnerability is a privilege escalation in Authentik's SCIM group provisioning function. The root cause is improper validation of source scope constraints when ingesting SCIM groups; the system adopts existing groups by name and replaces membership without verifying that the provisioning token's scope permits access to that group. An attacker with a source-scoped SCIM provisioning token can send a malicious SCIM request creating a group matching an existing administrator group name, which causes the system to merge the attacker-controlled membership into the privileged group. No special preconditions beyond token possession are required. The attacker gains full IdP superuser access and can lock out all existing administrators. A patch is available in versions after 2026.5.6.

## Affected products

- Authentik Security authentik through 2026.5.6

## Timeline

- 2026-08-11: disclosed

## References

- [https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik](https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik)