CVE-2026-79916

Deferred Deferred - Pending Action

Command Injection in MaxKB via AWS Credentials

Publication date: 2026-09-21

Last updated on: 2026-09-21

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description

MaxKB is an open-source AI assistant for enterprise. Prior to 2.10.5-lts, authenticated workspace members can inject control characters into AWS Bedrock access_key_id and secret_access_key fields that _update_aws_credentials writes to /root/.aws/credentials without safe parsing. An attacker can append a new AWS profile containing credential_process, then select that profile during a later model-validation request so botocore executes an attacker-controlled command as root. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.10.5-lts.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-09-21

Last Modified

2026-09-21

Generated

2026-09-22

AI Q&A

2026-09-22

EPSS Evaluated

N/A

NVD

CVE-2026-79916

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
maxkb	maxkb	2.10.5-lts

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-78	The product constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability affects MaxKB, an open-source AI assistant for enterprises. Authenticated workspace members can inject control characters into AWS Bedrock credentials fields. When these credentials are updated, unsafe parsing allows appending a new AWS profile with a malicious credential_process command. This command executes as root during later model-validation requests.

Detection Guidance

Check the /root/.aws/credentials file for unexpected AWS profile entries containing credential_process. Inspect MaxKB configuration files for modified AWS credentials. Review system logs for unauthorized command executions by botocore.

Impact Analysis

An attacker with workspace access could gain root-level control over the system by executing arbitrary commands. This could lead to full system compromise, data theft, or unauthorized access to sensitive resources.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could violate compliance requirements by enabling unauthorized root access, potentially leading to data breaches or loss of control over sensitive information. Organizations using MaxKB may fail to meet security controls mandated by GDPR, HIPAA, or other standards.

Mitigation Strategies

Update MaxKB to version 2.10.5-lts or later to address the vulnerability. Review /root/.aws/credentials for unauthorized AWS profile modifications and remove any suspicious profiles. Restrict workspace member permissions to prevent further credential manipulation.

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