Missing AuthenticationWeakness · CWE-306

CVE-2026-42856

HIGH · 8.7 CVSS v4.0 Published 2026-05-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
96/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Network-AI is a TypeScript/Node.js multi-agent orchestrator. Prior to 5.1.3, the MCP HTTP transport accepts JSON-RPC tools/call requests with no authentication, session, origin, or token check, and dispatches them directly to the orchestrator's tool registry. The default bind address is 0.0.0.0. As a result, any party with network reachability to the service can enumerate and invoke privileged management tools. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.1.3.

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

Network-AI's MCP HTTP transport accepts JSON-RPC tool requests without any authentication, session validation, origin checking, or token verification. Since the default bind address is 0.0.0.0, any network-accessible party can directly invoke privileged management tools in the orchestrator's tool registry.

MitigationUpgrade to Network-AI version 5.1.3 or later, which includes authentication fixes for the MCP HTTP transport.

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
None
Authentication
X
User interaction
None
Scope
X

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

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 Network-AI installation and version
    Run 'network-ai --version' or check the installed package version via your package manager (e.g., 'pip show network-ai' for Python installations, or 'dpkg -l | grep network-ai' for Debian-based systems)
    Affected if The installed version falls within the vulnerable range and has not been patched to 5.1.3 or later
  2. Confirm MCP HTTP transport is enabled
    Examine the Network-AI configuration file (typically found at /etc/network-ai/config.yaml, ~/.config/network-ai/config.yaml, or within the application's YAML configuration) and look for sections containing 'mcp', 'http', or 'transport' keywords. Verify whether an HTTP transport for MCP is explicitly enabled or present
    Affected if The MCP HTTP transport is present and enabled in the configuration
  3. Verify bind address setting
    In the same configuration files, locate the 'bind', 'address', or 'host' parameter under the MCP HTTP transport settings. Check if it is set to '0.0.0.0' or any publicly accessible network interface
    Affected if The bind address is set to 0.0.0.0 or an IP that makes the service network-accessible
  4. Inspect authentication configuration for MCP transport
    Search the configuration for authentication-related parameters such as 'auth', 'token', 'authentication', 'verify', 'session', or 'credentials' within the MCP transport section. Check if any authentication mechanism is defined or set to 'false', 'disabled', or 'none'
    Affected if No authentication method is configured, or authentication is explicitly disabled for the MCP HTTP transport

The environment is affected if Network-AI with MCP HTTP transport is running with default 0.0.0.0 binding and without any authentication, session, or token verification enabled.

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

Upgrade to Network-AI version 5.1.3 or later, which includes authentication fixes for the MCP HTTP transport.

Recommended fix High confidence

5.1.3

  1. Upgrade Network-AI to version 5.1.3 or later using your package manager (e.g., npm install [email protected] or yarn upgrade [email protected])
  2. After upgrading, restart the service to ensure the patched version is running
  3. Verify the service starts successfully and test that the MCP HTTP transport is functioning as expected

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,290
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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-2026-42856 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

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