Improper AuthenticationWeakness · CWE-287

CVE-2026-44058

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-21
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
An authentication bypass vulnerability in Netatalk 2.2.2 through 4.4.2 allows a remote privileged user to authenticate as an arbitrary user via the admin auth user mechanism.

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 · moderate confidence

Netatalk versions 2.2.2 through 4.4.2 contain an authentication bypass vulnerability in the admin auth user mechanism that allows a remote privileged attacker to authenticate as any arbitrary user on the system.

MitigationUpgrade Netatalk to the latest patched version (4.4.3 or later). If immediate patching is not possible, restrict network access to the AFP service using firewall rules or network segmentation.

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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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. Check if Netatalk is installed
    Run 'dpkg -l netatalk' on Debian/Ubuntu, 'rpm -q netatalk' on RHEL/CentOS, or 'netatalk -V' to see version information
    Affected if Netatalk is not installed or not found on the system
  2. Determine the installed Netatalk version
    Run 'netatalk -V' or check the package version via your system's package manager
    Affected if Version is 2.2.2 through 4.4.2 (inclusive)
  3. Locate the Netatalk configuration file
    Common paths are /etc/netatalk/netatalk.conf, /etc/atalk/netatalk.conf, or /etc/atalk/afp.conf. Check your system for the configuration file location
    Affected if Configuration file exists and contains admin auth user settings
  4. Verify if admin auth user mechanism is configured
    Search the Netatalk configuration for 'admin auth user' or 'auth required' directives using 'grep -r "admin" /etc/netatalk/' or 'grep -r "auth" /etc/atalk/'
    Affected if The 'admin auth user' option is present and set to any value, enabling the vulnerable authentication mechanism
  5. Check if Netatalk service is listening on network
    Run 'netstat -tlnp | grep afp' or 'ss -tlnp | grep 548' to see if the AFP service (port 548) is bound to a network interface rather than localhost only
    Affected if Netatalk is listening on a non-localhost IP address, making it remotely accessible

The system is affected if Netatalk version is between 2.2.2 and 4.4.2 AND the admin auth user mechanism is configured in the Netatalk configuration file, regardless of network exposure.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Netatalk to the latest patched version (4.4.3 or later). If immediate patching is not possible, restrict network access to the AFP service using firewall rules or network segmentation.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2026-44058 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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