Description
An unauthenticated remote attacker can bypass authentication and gain full access to administrative API endpoints in Nutanix Prism Element by including a crafted internal management HTTP header. The vulnerability is caused by a misconfiguration in the application's authentication filters.



Consequently, the server responds with a Set-Cookie header containing a valid JSESSIONID. This session cookie decodes to a JSON Web Token (JWT) granting maximum cluster administrative privileges. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute root-level commands on all Controller VMs (CVMs) in the cluster, leading to complete cluster destruction and unauthorized access to VM memory and virtual disks.
Published: 2026-10-15
Score: 9.3 Critical
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

Upgrade affected Nutanix AOS deployments to version 7.3.1.18, 7.5.2, 7.6.0.8 or later fixed releases.


Vendor Workaround

Organizations can mitigate this issue prior to patching by enforcing the following controls: * Network Segmentation: Restrict access to the Prism Element management port (9440) strictly to dedicated management VLANs, jump boxes or authorized IP ranges. * Ingress Traffic Filtering: Configure upstream Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) or ingress reverse proxies to strip specific internal management headers from incoming API requests before they reach the cluster. Note on WAF Configuration workaround: Nutanix is willing to securely provide the exact header string via Support to verified existing customers who are temporarily unable to apply the patch.

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

No advisories yet.

History

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description An unauthenticated remote attacker can bypass authentication and gain full access to administrative API endpoints in Nutanix Prism Element by including a crafted internal management HTTP header. The vulnerability is caused by a misconfiguration in the application's authentication filters. Consequently, the server responds with a Set-Cookie header containing a valid JSESSIONID. This session cookie decodes to a JSON Web Token (JWT) granting maximum cluster administrative privileges. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute root-level commands on all Controller VMs (CVMs) in the cluster, leading to complete cluster destruction and unauthorized access to VM memory and virtual disks.
Title Pre-Authentication Admin Bypass and Remote Code Execution in Nutanix Prism Gateway inside AOS
First Time appeared Nutanix
Nutanix aos
Weaknesses CWE-290
CWE-302
CWE-306
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:nutanix:aos_:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Nutanix
Nutanix aos
References
Metrics cvssV2_0

{'score': 10, 'vector': 'AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C'}

cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 9.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:P/S:N/AU:Y/R:U/V:C/RE:H/U:Red'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Nutanix

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-15T19:14:57.185Z

Reserved: 2026-09-02T06:41:54.722Z

Link: CVE-2026-84731

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-10-15T18:17:29.960

Modified: 2026-10-15T18:17:29.960

Link: CVE-2026-84731

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses