# CVE-2026-45332: Automad - Information Disclosure

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2026-45332 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-2026-45332

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 7.5
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** Marcantondahmen Automad
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Function)
- **Tags:** cms

## Description

Automad is a flat-file content management system and template engine. From 2.0.0-alpha.1 to 2.0.0-beta.27, a Broken Access Control vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to retrieve the bcrypt password hash of every administrator account with a single POST request. The /_api/user-collection/create-first-user setup endpoint remains publicly accessible once initial configuration is complete and returns full serialized user data in the JSON response body. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.0.0-beta.28.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2026-45332](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2026-45332) is a high-severity broken access control vulnerability in Automad versions 2.0.0-alpha.1 through 2.0.0-beta.27. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the publicly accessible setup endpoint to retrieve bcrypt password hashes for all administrator accounts, potentially enabling offline password-cracking attacks and unauthorized administrative access.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 26th of August 2026.

CrowdSec has not observed any significant exploitation activity targeting CVE-2026-45332 across its network. As a result, no community-driven trend analysis is available for this vulnerability at this time.

Attackers first request `/dashboard/login` to obtain a CSRF token, then send an unauthenticated form-encoded POST to `/_api/user-collection/create-first-user`. Exploitation attempts include `username`, `password1`, `password2`, `email`, and `__csrf__` parameters, with responses exposing `passwordHash` and `accounts.php` indicators.

## Timeline

- 2026-05-28: CVE Published. CVE-2026-45332 is published to NVD.
- 2026-08-26: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2026-45332 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.

## References

- https://github.com/marcantondahmen/automad/security/advisories/GHSA-xm76-r88j-vm3g
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2026/CVE-2026-45332.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2026-45332) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2026-45332. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.