Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-79920 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-79920 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-79920?
- Critical severity, with a CVSS score of 9.9, published 21 September 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Ajenti before 2.2.16.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-79920?
- 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-2026-79920 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a web application.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-79920?
- Check whether you run Ajenti 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
The /api/core/tasks/start endpoint in Ajenti prior to 2.2.16 lacks authorization checks for InstallPlugin, UnInstallPlugin, and UpgradeAll tasks. These tasks construct pip package specifications from unvalidated name and version fields and execute pip as root, allowing authenticated users without plugin-management permissions to perform privilege escalation. Attackers can inject malicious package specifications to achieve arbitrary code execution with root privileges.
Affected products
- Ajenti Ajenti before 2.2.16
Timeline
- 2026-09-21: disclosed