---
title: "CVE-2026-73278: Gitea - Authentication Bypass"
description: "Gitea contains a broken authentication vulnerability caused by missing WebAuthn challenge enforcement in OAuth2 and OpenID Connect sign-in paths when WebAuthn is the only second factor, letting attackers obtain full sessions without passkey verification, exploit requires authentication via external identity flow."
url: https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/CVE-2026-73278/
---

# CVE-2026-73278 Gitea - Authentication Bypass

Gitea contains a broken authentication vulnerability caused by missing WebAuthn challenge enforcement in OAuth2 and OpenID Connect sign-in paths when WebAuthn is the only second factor, letting attackers obtain full sessions without passkey verification, exploit requires authentication via external identity flow.

CVSS base score 9.8 /10

Critical

CISA KEV

Not listed

Public exploit

None known

Authentication

Not required

EPSS

0.47% chance of exploitation in 30 days

[View the NVD record ↗](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73278)

## Details

Type

Authentication Bypass

Impact

Broken Authentication

CVSS vector

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

Published

6 October 2026

Updated

15 October 2026

Weakness

[CWE-287](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/287.html)

## Vendor fix

Update to the latest version with enforced WebAuthn challenge in external identity flows.

Patching closes this CVE. It does not tell you which of your systems run the affected version, or what else is exposed alongside them.

## References

- [https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73278](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-73278)
- [https://blog.gitea.com/release-of-1.27.2/](https://blog.gitea.com/release-of-1.27.2/)
- [https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/38805](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/38805)
- [https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/38810](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/38810)
- [https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/releases/tag/v1.27.2](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/releases/tag/v1.27.2)
- [https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/security/advisories/GHSA-92j2-6qcg-c28c](https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/security/advisories/GHSA-92j2-6qcg-c28c)

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## What this record can't tell you

- Whether you run the affected software, and where
- Whether an attacker can actually reach and exploit it
- The misconfigurations that never get a CVE number
- What it would cost the business, ranked into what to fix first

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