CVE-2026-44555CWE-862

Open WebUI: Base Model Routing Bypasses Access Control via Model Chaining

High · published May 15, 2026

CVSS v3.1
7.6
EPSS
0%
Percentile
27.2
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

Open WebUI is a self-hosted artificial intelligence platform designed to operate entirely offline. Prior to 0.9.0, Open WebUI supports model composition via base_model_id: a user-defined model (e.g., "Cheap Assistant") can reference an existing base model (e.g., "gpt-4-turbo-restricted") that provides the actual inference capability. When a user queries the composed model, the access control pipeline verifies the user has access to the composed model but never re-verifies access to the chained base model. Additionally, the model creation and import endpoints accept arbitrary base_model_id values without checking that the caller has access to that base model. Combined, this allows any user with the default model creation permission to create a model that chains to a restricted base model — and then invoke it, causing the server to dispatch the request to the restricted base model using the admin-configured API key. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.9.0.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.6 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00348 · 27.2th percentile
Weakness
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
Published
2026-05-15T19:48Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 15 MAY 19:48Z
    Open WebUI: Base Model Routing Bypasses Access Control via Model Chaining
    cvelistv5