Gitea public-only token bypass on bulk organization repository deletion
Affects Gitea 1.27.0 through 28.2.0 when a public-only token is used on a public organization that holds private repositories. Fixed in 28.3.0.
Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- Published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- A 0-100 score for how much a CVE matters across the industry: exploitation, exposure, how widely the software is used, severity and whether a fix exists.What do these mean? →
- 8/100 · provisional
- How many real-world setups can hit the bug, from the vendor's advisory and CISA data. It does not know your setup.What do these mean? →
- Specific setups only
- Fix
- Fixed in 28.3.0
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
Gitea, the self-hosted Git service, is affected. A token limited to public resources could be used to permanently delete all of an organization's repositories, including private ones, when the organization itself is public.
Read the original description
`DELETE /api/v1/orgs/{org}/repos` deletes all repositories of an organization, but it did not enforce the public-only restriction of access tokens: the route only checked that the organization itself was public. A public-only token of an owner of a public organization could therefore permanently delete the organization's private repositories, which such a token must not reach. Routes that require organization ownership now reject public-only tokens.
What to do
Check whether your setup matches what the bug needs.
Affected versions are 1.27.0 through 28.2.0. The attacker needs a personal access token scoped to public-only. The target organization is public and contains both public and private repositories.Upgrade to a fixed version: 28.3.0.
Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- gitea.dev
From 1.27.0 · fixed in 28.3.0
Evidence 5
- Advisory
- Patch
- Patch
- Repository
- Link
Corrections
None so far.
Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.
Questions about CVE-2026-119441
What does this mean?
A personal access token scoped to public-only can permanently and irreversibly delete all repositories in an organization. This includes private repositories the token should not be able to reach.Source: github.com
Am I affected, and how do I check?
Affected versions are Gitea 1.27.0 through 28.2.0. The issue involves public organizations that contain both public and private repositories, and tokens scoped to public-only; check the version reported by the Gitea binary (gitea --version) and the organization's repository visibility.Source: github.com
What should I do about it?
Upgrade Gitea to 28.3.0 or later, which is the listed fixed version.Source: github.com
Is it being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data