CVE-2026-85990Leantime: Any Authenticated User Can Self-Escalate to Admin via Unauthorized JSON-RPC Methods

Leantime is an open source project management system. Prior to 3.10.0, for the provisionally grouped account-creation and plugin-management surfaces, Leantime's JSON-RPC dispatcher in app/Domain/Api/Controllers/Jsonrpc.php exposes public API service methods, while PermissionEnforcer::enforce allows methods that lack a RequiresPermission attribute. A low-privilege authenticated user with an ordinary browser session can send the required X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest header and call leantime.rpc.api.api.createApiKeyWithProjects, which reaches Api::createApiKeyWithProjects, with an attacker-chosen role to create an interactive administrator account. The same missing per-method authorization exposes Plugins::installPlugin, Plugins::enablePlugin, Plugins::disablePlugin, and Plugins::removePlugin to ordinary authenticated users, permitting unauthorized plugin management. The complete provisionally grouped issue is fixed in version 3.10.0.

CVSS

8.8 HIGH (v3.1, CNA)CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weakness (CWE)

CWE-269, CWE-862

Known exploited

Not in CISA's KEV catalog

EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)

0.33% (percentile 24)

Assigned by

GitHub_M

NVD analysis

Deferred

Record last updated

Oct 16, 2026

First seen by InfoSec Signals

Oct 13, 2026

The CVE record on cve.org · NVD's entry

The CVE record is authoritative. Products marked “from the name” were identified from the CNA's free-text names, not a CPE, and are matched less certainly. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.