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PocketbaseApplication

CVE-2026-44166

HIGH · 7.6 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 0.22.42 / 0.37.4 or later.
See remediation →
83/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Pocketbase is an open source web backend written in go. Prior to 0.22.42 and 0.37.4, in some situations, if an attacker knows the email address of the victim they can create and link an unverified PocketBase user in advance by authenticating with one of the OAuth2 app providers, e.g. "A". When the victim gets invited or decides to sign up to your app on their own with provider "B" (PocketBase OAuth2 auth requires to be with a different provider because we don't allow multiple OAuth2 accounts from the same provider to be associated to a single PocketBase user), the user created previously by the attacker will be autolinked, upgraded to "verified" and its old password reset. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.22.42 and 0.37.4.

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

In PocketBase versions prior to 0.22.42 and 0.37.4, an attacker who knows a victim's email can pre-create an unverified user account by authenticating with one OAuth2 provider. When the victim later signs up with a different OAuth2 provider using the same email, the attacker's pre-created account gets auto-linked to the victim's identity, automatically upgraded to verified status, and its password reset—enabling account takeover.

MitigationUpgrade PocketBase to version 0.22.42 or 0.37.4 (or later) to apply the fix that prevents unauthorized auto-linking of OAuth2 accounts.

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

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
PocketbaseApplication
Affected:< 0.22.42>= 0.23.0, < 0.37.4

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
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
Low

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

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 installed PocketBase version
    Run the pocketbase --version command or check the version displayed in the admin UI footer at /_/
    Affected if Version is below 0.22.42, or between 0.23.0 and 0.37.4 (exclusive)
  2. Identify configured OAuth2 providers
    Review the PocketBase configuration file (pb_data/config.yaml or pb_data/config.json) for auth.provider entries, or inspect the admin UI Settings > Auth Providers page
    Affected if One or more OAuth2 providers (such as Google, GitHub, Discord, etc.) are enabled and configured
  3. Verify user account auto-linking setting
    Check the PocketBase configuration for the auth.allowEmailAuth and auth.oAuthAutoAccountLinking settings in the config file or via the /api/settings API endpoint
    Affected if OAuth2 auto-account linking is enabled, allowing accounts with the same email to be automatically merged
  4. Review existing user accounts for unverified entries
    Query the users collection via the admin UI or API (using an admin token) to list accounts, filtering for isVerified = false
    Affected if There are unverified user accounts present in the system that could have been pre-created by an attacker

You are affected if your PocketBase version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND you have OAuth2 providers configured with auto-linking enabled, as an attacker could pre-create an unverified account and later hijack it when the legitimate user signs up with a different OAuth2 provider.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 0.22.42 / 0.37.4 or later
Fixed in 0.22.420.37.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade PocketBase to version 0.22.42 or 0.37.4 (or later) to apply the fix that prevents unauthorized auto-linking of OAuth2 accounts.

Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to PocketBase 0.22.42 (for 0.22.x users) or 0.37.4 (for 0.23.0-0.37.x users)

  1. 1. Identify your current PocketBase version by checking the admin UI or running the binary with version flag
  2. 2. Create a full backup of your PocketBase instance (database, uploads, and configuration files)
  3. 3. If your current version is < 0.22.42, download PocketBase version 0.22.42; if your version is >= 0.23.0 and < 0.37.4, download version 0.37.4
  4. 4. Replace the existing PocketBase binary with the new version
  5. 5. Restart the PocketBase service
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade was successful by logging into the admin UI and checking the version
  7. 7. Test OAuth2 authentication flow to confirm the vulnerability is remediated
Caveat No breaking changes specifically mentioned in the advisory; as with any upgrade, test in a staging environment first

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

Fix this in Pocketbase Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.

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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-2026-44166 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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data