Chef Automate is widely used in enterprise DevOps; unauthenticated elevation can compromise automation and infrastructure at scale.
CVE-2026-80462
Unauthenticated elevation in Chef Automate API gateway enabling admin-level control.
Is CVE-2026-80462 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-80462 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.30% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-80462?
CVE-2026-80462 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 10.0. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-80462?
Not known from our data. No patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-80462, which is not the same as no patch existing — a fix may have shipped without a tagged reference, or after this record was written. The vendor advisory is the only authority on whether a fix exists, and mitigations may be available regardless.
What does CVE-2026-80462 affect?
CVE-2026-80462 affects Chef Automate (API gateway and identity validation). Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-80462?
Apply vendor updates ASAP; restrict API exposure; audit and rotate credentials.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Unauthenticated attacker can gain elevated/admin access to Chef Automate via API, modify automation, deploy or tamper with infrastructure configs.
Immediate action required
- affected>= 4.13.516 and < 4.13.520
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.