Vulnerability Details CVE-2026-91085
Apache Karaf's shell/SSH command security is enforced by per-scope ACL configuration files (etc/org.apache.karaf.command.acl.<scope>.cfg). SecuredSessionFactoryImpl.checkSecurity() resolves the roles required for an invocation and, when no ACL rule matches the command, fails open: ACLConfigurationParser.Specificity.NO_MATCH sets passCheck = true. The safety valve for this, karaf.secured.command.compulsory.roles, ships commented out in etc/system.properties, so an unmatched command is allowed for any authenticated user.
The shipped org.apache.karaf.command.acl.config ACL (assemblies/features/standard/src/main/feature/feature.xml, mirrored into instance/.../etc/org.apache.karaf.command.acl.config.cfg) has no install entry. It restricts delete to admin, restricts edit/property-*/update on the jmx.acl.*, org.apache.karaf.command.acl.* and org.apache.karaf.service.acl.* PIDs to admin, and allows manager for everything else, but config:install was simply unmatched, and therefore allowed for any authenticated user, including one holding only the viewer role.
config:install <url> <finalname> fetches url and writes it into ${karaf.etc} as finalname. It calls PathUtils.checkWithin() to block .. traversal outside karaf.etc, but that folder holds every security-relevant file Karaf ships: users.properties, keys.properties, host.key, and all org.apache.karaf.*.acl.* files, including the very ACL file that (mis)governs this command. With -o/--override, an existing file is overwritten with attacker-controlled bytes fetched from an arbitrary URL.
Because felix.fileinstall.dir = ${karaf.etc} (etc/config.properties), Felix FileInstall also watches and reloads any .cfg file dropped there, closing the loop without requiring a restart.
By contrast, bundle:install, feature:install and kar:install are all admin-only in their own ACLs, and config:delete is admin in this same ACL, config:install was the outlier.
MitigationAdd install = admin in etc/org.apache.karaf.command.acl.config.cfg (create the file is absent), and/or set karaf.secured.command.compulsory.roles=admin in etc/system.properties (and restart) to make unmatched commands fail closed by default.
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.002
EPSS Ranking 9.1%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 6.3
References
Products affected by CVE-2026-91085
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.0.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.1.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.1.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.1.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.1.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.1.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.1.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.1.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.10
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.11
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.7
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.8
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.2.9
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.10
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.11
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.12
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.7
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.8
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.3.9
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.4.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.4.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.4.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.4.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.4.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:2.7.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.7
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.8
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:3.0.9
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.10
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.7
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.8
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.0.9
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.1.7
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.10
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.11
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.12
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.13
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.14
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.15
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.2.9
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.7
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.3.8
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.0
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.1
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.10
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.11
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.2
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.3
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.4
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.5
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.6
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.7
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.8
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cpe:2.3:a:apache:karaf:4.4.9