dbcve.org
Information ExposureWeakness · CWE-200

CVE-2026-2244

HIGH · 8.4 CVSS v4.0 Published 2026-02-26
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
88/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A vulnerability in Google Cloud Vertex AI Workbench from 7/21/2025 to 01/30/2026 allows an attacker to exfiltrate valid Google Cloud access tokens of other users via abuse of a built-in startup script. All instances after January 30th, 2026 have been patched to protect from this vulnerability. No user action is required for this.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

This vulnerability in Google Cloud Vertex AI Workbench existed between July 21, 2025 and January 30, 2026, allowing attackers to abuse a built-in startup script mechanism to exfiltrate valid Google Cloud access tokens belonging to other users of the platform.

MitigationNo user action is required as Google has automatically patched all instances after January 30, 2026. Organizations should verify their Vertex AI Workbench instances are running on current versions to confirm the patch is applied.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
Authentication
X
User interaction
A
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/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:Clear

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Vertex AI Workbench instances in your environment
    Use Google Cloud CLI: gcloud ai notebooks instances list --location=REGION or check Cloud Console for Vertex AI Workbench instances
    Affected if Any Vertex AI Workbench instances exist that were created between July 21, 2025 and January 30, 2026
  2. Check instance creation timestamps
    For each Vertex AI Workbench instance, run: gcloud ai notebooks instances describe INSTANCE_NAME --location=REGION and look at the creationTimestamp field
    Affected if Any instance shows a creationTimestamp between 2025-07-21 and 2026-01-30 (inclusive)
  3. Review startup script configurations
    Examine the startup script configuration of affected instances: check metadata for 'startup-script' key using gcloud ai notebooks instances describe or inspect the instance metadata via Cloud Console
    Affected if A custom or unexpected startup script is present that was not authored by your organization, or scripts that attempt to access token metadata endpoints
  4. Audit logs for suspicious startup script activity
    Review Cloud Audit Logs for Vertex AI Workbench: go to Logging > Logs Explorer and filter for resource.type="notebooks.googleapis.com/Instance" with protoPayload.methodName="google.cloud.notebooks.v1.RuntimeService.CreateRuntime" or similar startup-related methods during the affected period
    Affected if Logs show unexpected startup script executions or token exfiltration attempts (e.g., access to metadata.google.internal with token scopes during July 2025 - January 2026)

You are affected if you have any Vertex AI Workbench instances created between July 21, 2025 and January 30, 2026, especially if they contain unauthorized startup scripts or show suspicious access to token metadata endpoints in logs.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

No user action is required as Google has automatically patched all instances after January 30, 2026. Organizations should verify their Vertex AI Workbench instances are running on current versions to confirm the patch is applied.

Recommended fix High confidence
  1. No user action is required. Google has automatically patched all Vertex AI Workbench instances after January 30th, 2026.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $880
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-2244 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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