CVE-2026-16895Authentication Bypass in Metasploit JSON-RPC Service When DB Health Check Fails

Description

A logic vulnerability (fail-open condition) has been identified within the Metasploit Framework's JSON-RPC web service interface. When an exception occurs during the database health check (db.check) and the environment variable MSF_WS_JSON_RPC_API_TOKEN is not explicitly set, the application resets the internal state flag msf.auth_initialized to false. The ApiToken Warden authentication strategy misinterprets this false value as an indicator that authentication is not initialized or required, thereby granting unauthenticated local access to the JSON-RPC request dispatcher.

Data: CVE.org, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS, Ubuntu. Published as the sources state it, in English.

Affected products and versions

References and patches

• https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/pt-metasploit-wrap-up-lot-of-summer-shells-and-fit-http-profiles/ vendor-advisory
• https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/pull/21768 patch