CVE-2026-55170
Description
A flaw was found in OpenFGA, an authorization/permission engine. When using MySQL as the datastore, and authorization decisions depend on case-sensitive user strings, the system may incorrectly treat case-distinct values (e.g., 'user:Alice' and 'user:alice') as equivalent. This can lead to improper policy enforcement, where two different authorization requests might receive the same, unintended response, potentially affecting access controls.
Statement
This flaw affects OpenFGA when MySQL is used as the datastore backend and authorization decisions rely on case-sensitive user identifiers. Red Hat does not ship OpenFGA as a standalone product. The affected code is bundled inside Grafana's experimental "Zanzana" authorization engine (which vendors github.com/openfga/openfga as a Go dependency), and Grafana itself is embedded in Red Hat Ceph Storage's dashboard, Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management, Multicluster Global Hub, and RHEL's grafana package. Zanzana is disabled by default in upstream Grafana (feature toggle zanzana=false, experimental) and none of these embedding products expose it as a supported, user-configurable OpenFGA/MySQL-backed authorization server, which significantly limits real-world exposure even though the vulnerable dependency ships as part of the bundled code.
Mitigation
No mitigation is required for the affected Red Hat products, since none of them expose Grafana's Zanzana/OpenFGA authorization engine as a supported, user-facing feature backed by MySQL. Operators running a standalone, self-configured OpenFGA deployment with MySQL as the datastore should upgrade to OpenFGA 1.18.0 or later, which changes the MySQL identifier columns to a case-sensitive (utf8mb4_bin) collation.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.4 | 5.4 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | N/A |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | N/A |
| Privileges Required | Low | Low | N/A |
| User Interaction | None | None | N/A |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | N/A |
| Confidentiality | Low | Low | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | Low | Low | N/A |
| Availability Impact | None | None | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Access Control
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
