Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in JFrog Artifactory by JFrog
CVE-2026-42016

8.1HIGH

Key Information:

Vendor: Jfrog
Status: Artifactory
Vendor: CVE Published:; 27 July 2026

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📈 Score: 983💰 Ransomware👾 Exploit Exists🦅 CISA Reported📰 News Worthy

What is CVE-2026-42016?

CVE-2026-42016 is a privilege escalation vulnerability found in JFrog Artifactory, a repository manager used for managing and distributing software packages. This software is crucial for DevOps teams as it supports a range of package formats, enabling streamlined development processes. The vulnerability arises from a flaw in the handling of token signature validation, specifically the improper verification of the token's issuer and scope. Consequently, this can allow malicious users to escalate their privileges, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive resources within the Artifactory environment. Organizations utilizing affected versions may experience unauthorized actions executed by non-privileged users, potentially leading to significant operational disruption and exposure of critical data.

Potential Impact of CVE-2026-42016

Unauthorized Access: The vulnerability allows attackers to escalate privileges, enabling them to access sensitive resources and potentially sensitive data that should otherwise be restricted to authorized users only. This can lead to unauthorized modifications or deletions of crucial repository data.
Data Integrity Risks: With elevated privileges, an attacker could alter or corrupt critical software artifacts stored in the repository, impacting the integrity of software builds and deployments, which could result in widespread application failures or security vulnerabilities in production environments.
Operational Disruption: Organizations may face significant disruptions to their software development lifecycle, as the exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to downtime, increased response costs, and the need for urgent remediation efforts, affecting overall productivity and resource allocation.

CISA has reported CVE-2026-42016

CISA provides regional cyber and physical services to support security and resilience across the United States. CISA monitor the most dangerious vulnerabilities and have identifed CVE-2026-42016 as being exploited but is not known by the CISA to be used in ransomware campaigns. This is subject to change at pace as recent news articles suggest the vulnerability is being used by ransomware groups.

The CISA's recommendation is: Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.

Affected Version(s)

artifactory 0 < 7.133.11

News Articles

Securityweek

CVE-2026-42016 CVE-2026-42018

Three JFrog Artifactory Flaws Exploited for Backdoor Deployment

Threat actors have been chaining three JFrog Artifactory vulnerabilities to gain admin privileges and deploy backdoors.

1 month ago

Techtimes

CVE-2026-42016 CVE-2026-82329

JFrog Artifactory Hacked in 24-Day Campaign; Rust Backdoors Survive Patching

JFrog Artifactory vulnerabilities CVE-2026-42016, CVE-2026-42018, and CVE-2026-82329 were chained by multiple threat actors to hack build servers and plant Rust backdoors between August 15 and