# CVE-2026-26190: Milvus - Authentication Bypass

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2026-26190 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2026-26190

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 9.8
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** Milvus-io Milvus
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function)
- **Tags:** ai_mcp

## Description

Milvus is an open-source vector database built for generative AI applications. Prior to 2.5.27 and 2.6.10, Milvus exposes TCP port 9091 by default, which enables authentication bypasses. The /expr debug endpoint uses a weak, predictable default authentication token derived from etcd.rootPath (default: by-dev), enabling arbitrary expression evaluation. The full REST API (/api/v1/*) is registered on the metrics/management port without any authentication, allowing unauthenticated access to all business operations including data manipulation and credential management. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.5.27 and 2.6.10.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2026-26190](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2026-26190) is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Milvus, an open-source vector database, affecting versions prior to 2.5.27 and 2.6.10. Due to exposed TCP port 9091 and weak default authentication, unauthenticated attackers can access sensitive REST API endpoints, enabling arbitrary data manipulation, credential management, and potentially full system compromise. This flaw poses a significant risk for remote exploitation and unauthorized control over Milvus deployments.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 1st of July 2026.

CrowdSec has not observed any significant exploitation activity targeting CVE-2026-26190 across its network. As a result, no community-driven trend analysis is available for this vulnerability at this time.

Attackers exploit unauthenticated access to the Milvus Metrics API on port 9091 by sending requests to the `/expr` endpoint with the `auth=by-dev` parameter, allowing arbitrary expression evaluation and data manipulation without authentication.

## Timeline

- 2026-02-13: CVE Published. CVE-2026-26190 is published to NVD.
- 2026-07-01: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2026-26190 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2026-08-01: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2026-26190 for the first time.

## References

- https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/security/advisories/GHSA-7ppg-37fh-vcr6
- https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.10
- https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.5.27
- https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/commit/92b74dd2e286006a83b4a5f07951027b32e718a9
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2026/CVE-2026-26190.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2026-26190) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2026-26190. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.