Open WebUI: Stale Admin Role in Socket.IO Session Pool Enables Post-Demotion Cross-User Note Access
Open WebUI
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- Severity
- High, CVSS 8.1
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- Record
- CVE-2026-44553
- Affects
- Open WebUI
- Known exploited
- Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- Published
- Record first published by the source
- May 15, 2026
- Source last modified
- June 17, 2026
Description
Open WebUI is a self-hosted artificial intelligence platform designed to operate entirely offline. Prior to 0.9.0, administrative role changes and user deletions do not iterate SESSION_POOL to disconnect affected sessions. As a result, a user whose admin role has been revoked retains admin privileges within their existing Socket.IO session for as long as they keep the connection alive (via automatic heartbeats). The gap is exclusive to the Socket.IO session cache. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.9.0.
Description quoted from the NVD record.
Who is affected
Open WebUI is a chat screen your organization can run on its own computers to talk with AI language models. This flaw affects versions before 0.9.0. When an administrator's admin role is taken away, or a user is deleted, Open WebUI does not close that person's existing live connection to the product. A former administrator can keep admin powers in that open connection for as long as it stays active, which can let them reach other users' notes. The problem is limited to these live connections. This flaw is rated High.
What to do
- The person who installed or runs Open WebUI for your organization should update it to version
0.9.0or later, which fixes this flaw. - If an IT provider or vendor runs Open WebUI for you, send them this advisory and ask when the update will be done.
- Until the update is done, removing someone's admin role or deleting their account may not fully take effect while that person stays connected.
- If you have recently removed an administrator or deleted a user, tell the person who runs Open WebUI so they can treat the update as urgent.
Analysis written from the source record as of June 17, 2026 and reviewed before publishing.