{"id":"CVE-2026-105986","kind":"vulnerability","aliases":["CVE-2026-105986"],"related":[],"title":"Kong Gateway Enterprise: delegated admin can elevate privileges via RBAC flaw","description":"Incorrect authorization in the Admin API RBAC of Kong Gateway Enterprise allows a delegated administrator to elevate  privileges via a percent-encoded role name or a self-assigned role.","summary":"Kong Gateway Enterprise's Admin API role-based access control does not check authorization correctly. A delegated administrator can gain higher privileges by using a percent-encoded role name or by assigning a role to themselves.","severity":"high","cvss":8.7,"epss":null,"exploited":false,"exploited_at":null,"products":[{"name":"Kong Gateway Enterprise","fixed":["3.10.0.20","3.13.0.12","3.14.0.17","3.15.0.7","3.16.0.2"],"affected":">= 3.10.0.0, < 3.10.0.20; >= 3.13.0.0, < 3.13.0.12; >= 3.14.0.0, < 3.14.0.17; >= 3.15.0.0, < 3.15.0.7; >= 3.16.0.0, < 3.16.0.2","ecosystem":"vendor"},{"name":"Kong AI Gateway","fixed":["2.2.1"],"affected":">= 2.2.0, < 2.2.1","ecosystem":"vendor"}],"ecosystems":[],"tags":["api-gateway","kong","kong-gateway-enterprise","rbac","self-hosted","vendor"],"not_affected_if":["no-delegated-admins","rbac-disabled","single-admin"],"how_to_check":"Run 'kong version' (or check the image tag/package) on every Enterprise node. You are exposed if the version is in 3.10.0.0-3.10.0.19, 3.13.0.0-3.13.0.11, 3.14.0.0-3.14.0.16, 3.15.0.0-3.15.0.6 or 3.16.0.0-3.16.0.1, AND RBAC is enforced (enforce_rbac) with delegated admins whose roles you did not fully trust. Also check Kong AI Gateway 2.2.0.","fix":"Upgrade Kong Gateway Enterprise to 3.10.0.20, 3.13.0.12, 3.14.0.17, 3.15.0.7 or 3.16.0.2 (per branch). Kong AI Gateway: 2.2.1.","status":"open","published_at":"2026-11-10T21:17:52+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-11-10T21:46:08+00:00","triaged_at":"2026-11-10T21:47:45+00:00","updated_at":"2026-11-10T22:03:35+00:00","category":"vendor","confidence":0.8,"triage":{"at":"2026-11-10T21:47:45Z","model":"claude-haiku-5-5","output":{"fix":"unknown","reach":"network","title":"Kong Gateway Enterprise: delegated admin can elevate privileges via RBAC flaw","impact":"high","summary":"Kong Gateway Enterprise's Admin API role-based access control does not check authorization correctly. A delegated administrator can gain higher privileges by using a percent-encoded role name or by assigning a role to themselves.","audience":"businesses","category":"vendor","nicknames":[],"who_cares":["kong","kong-gateway-enterprise","api-gateway","rbac"],"confidence":0.5,"fix_status":"unknown","needs_auth":"yes","worst_case":"delegated admin gains higher privileges than granted","analyst_note":"Find affected and fixed Kong Gateway Enterprise versions and the vendor advisory from the NVD entry; sources give neither.","how_to_check":"unknown","plain_action":"","product_name":"","needs_analyst":true,"not_affected_if":["rbac-disabled","no-delegated-admins"],"who_is_affected":"Teams running self-hosted Kong Gateway Enterprise with the Admin API and RBAC enabled, where some users hold delegated administrator roles. Sources do not state which versions are affected or whether managed Kong offerings are exposed.","user_interaction":"no","product_ecosystem":"","needs_special_setup":"yes","severity_if_unknown":"high"},"cost_usd":0.000688,"input_tokens":4527,"output_tokens":470,"severity_before":"high"},"analyst_status":"done","analyst_note":"Find affected and fixed Kong Gateway Enterprise versions and the vendor advisory from the NVD entry; sources give neither.","search":"'-105986':14A,17A '-2026':13A,16A 'access':46B 'admin':5A,41B,77C 'administr':55B,87C 'ai':22A 'allow':84C 'api':25B,42B,78C 'api-gateway':24B 'assign':70B,102C 'author':51B,74C 'base':45B 'check':50B 'control':47B 'correct':52B 'cve':12A,15A 'deleg':4A,54B,86C 'elev':7A,89C 'encod':65B,95C 'enterpris':3A,31B,39B,83C 'enterprise':20A 'flaw':11A 'gain':57B 'gateway':2A,19A,23A,26B,30B,38B,82C 'higher':58B 'host':35B 'incorrect':73C 'kong':1A,18A,21A,27B,29B,37B,81C 'kong-gateway-enterpris':28B 'name':67B,97C 'percent':64B,94C 'percent-encod':63B,93C 'privileg':8A,59B,90C 'rbac':10A,32B,79C 'role':44B,66B,72B,96C,103C 'role-bas':43B 'self':34B,101C 'self-assign':100C 'self-host':33B 'use':61B 'vendor':36B 'via':9A,91C","nicknames":[],"mitigations":[],"who_affected":"Self-managed Kong Gateway Enterprise deployments that use Admin API RBAC and delegate admin rights to other people or teams. A delegated admin can escalate privileges using a percent-encoded role name or by assigning a role to themselves. Teams with no RBAC, a single trusted admin, or the Admin API not reachable by delegated admins can deprioritise it.","tier":"B","verified":{"fix":{"at":"2026-11-10T22:03:35Z","by":"analyst","doc":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-105986","run_id":2912}},"analyst_revisit_at":null,"fix_status":"none","audience":"businesses","plain_action":null,"pkeys":["aigateway","gatewayenterprise","kongaigateway","konggatewayenterprise"],"ptokens":["ai","enterprise","gateway","kong"],"labels":["apigateway","high","kong","konggatewayenterprise","rbac","selfhosted","vendor"],"campaign_type":null,"search_a":"'-105986':14A,17A '-2026':13A,16A 'admin':5A 'ai':22A 'cve':12A,15A 'deleg':4A 'elev':7A 'enterpris':3A 'enterprise':20A 'flaw':11A 'gateway':2A,19A,23A 'kong':1A,18A,21A 'privileg':8A 'rbac':10A 'via':9A","search_b":"'access':46B 'admin':41B 'administr':55B 'api':25B,42B 'api-gateway':24B 'assign':70B 'author':51B 'base':45B 'check':50B 'control':47B 'correct':52B 'deleg':54B 'encod':65B 'enterpris':31B,39B 'gain':57B 'gateway':26B,30B,38B 'higher':58B 'host':35B 'kong':27B,29B,37B 'kong-gateway-enterpris':28B 'name':67B 'percent':64B 'percent-encod':63B 'privileg':59B 'rbac':32B 'role':44B,66B,72B 'role-bas':43B 'self':34B 'self-host':33B 'use':61B 'vendor':36B","search_c":"'admin':77C 'administr':87C 'allow':84C 'api':78C 'assign':102C 'author':74C 'deleg':86C 'elev':89C 'encod':95C 'enterpris':83C 'gateway':82C 'incorrect':73C 'kong':81C 'name':97C 'percent':94C 'percent-encod':93C 'privileg':90C 'rbac':79C 'role':96C,103C 'self':101C 'self-assign':100C 'via':91C","cause_entry":null,"cause_path":null,"disclosures_checked_at":null,"first_public_at":"2026-11-10T21:17:52+00:00","kev":null,"cvss_vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X","cvss_by":"02762ae7-200e-4b20-9b2b-a77d5b8fc4cb","poc_count":0,"sources":[{"source":"nvd","external_id":"CVE-2026-105986","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-105986","severity":null,"published_at":"2026-11-10T21:17:52+00:00","modified_at":"2026-11-10T21:17:52+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-11-10T21:46:08+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-11-10T21:46:08+00:00","note":null},{"source":"analyst","external_id":"CVE-2026-105986:2912","url":"https://developer.konghq.com/gateway/changelog/","severity":null,"published_at":"2026-11-10T22:03:35+00:00","modified_at":"2026-11-10T22:03:35+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-11-10T22:03:35+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-11-10T22:03:35+00:00","note":"NVD (Kong CNA) lists affected/fixed ranges; Kong changelog 3.16.0.2 (2026/11/10) confirms fix 'applying RBAC self-protection checks consistently'. Only the 3.16 changelog read; other branch fixes come from NVD only. No exploitation or PoC seen.","cites":["https://developer.konghq.com/gateway/changelog/","https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-105986"]}],"documents":[{"id":119284,"url":"https://developer.konghq.com/gateway/changelog/","title":"Kong Gateway changelog (3.16.0.2)","kind":"vendor","source":"analyst","publisher":null,"text":null,"published_at":null,"relation":"fix","confidence":null,"note":null},{"id":119375,"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-105986","title":"NVD CVE-2026-105986 (Kong CNA)","kind":"advisory","source":"analyst","publisher":null,"text":null,"published_at":null,"relation":"advisory","confidence":null,"note":null}],"disclosures":[],"exploit_sources":[],"notice":"Free to read, with fair use of about 60 pages a minute. For higher limits or API access: sales@infrastack.ai"}