Authentication bypass in FalkorDB Bolt endpoint via fail-open AUTH probe error handling

An improper authentication vulnerability in the is_authenticated function (src/bolt/bolt_api.c) in FalkorDB before 4.20.0 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to execute graph queries without credentials through the Bolt endpoint. The function decides whether a password is required by issuing an empty AUTH command to Redis and treats only a WRONGPASS error as meaning that a password is required; any other error, such as LOADING while a dataset is being loaded, MASTERDOWN during replication failover, or OOM under memory pressure, causes the client to be treated as authenticated. Only deployments that enable the Bolt endpoint (BOLT_PORT, disabled by default) are affected.

Source published

9 Oct 2026 05:08:13 UTC

Source modified

15 Oct 2026 16:06:12 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

Source terms

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CVSS 4.0 · 9.2 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS 3.1 · 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H