CVE-2026-66853 Gitea CVE debrief

Who should care

Gitea administrators and users with restricted accounts should assess exposure and prioritize verification of instance configuration. Defenders should verify Gitea instance configuration and assess security impact based on available information. Security teams and vulnerability management teams should review the vulnerability and its potential impact on their organizations.

Why it matters

Gitea's improper exposure of organization metadata to restricted users allows unauthorized access to sensitive information, requiring defenders to verify instance configuration and assess security impact.

• Restricted users can list public organization memberships of known users
• Restricted users can retrieve limited organizations' names, descriptions, and avatars
• Defenders should verify exposure of Gitea instances to authenticated restricted users
• Defenders should assess the impact of metadata disclosure on organization security

Technical summary

Gitea's user organization-list API includes Limited-visibility organizations for authenticated restricted accounts without applying the visibility restriction enforced by the single-organization endpoint. This improper exposure allows restricted users to list public organization memberships of known users and retrieve limited organizations' names, descriptions, and avatars, disclosing organization metadata that should be hidden from the requesting account. The vulnerability affects Gitea instances with restricted user accounts.

Defensive priority

Defenders should prioritize verifying exposure of Gitea instances to authenticated restricted users and assess the impact of metadata disclosure on organization security.

Recommended defensive actions

• Verify Gitea instance configuration to ensure restricted users cannot access organization metadata
• Assess the impact of metadata disclosure on organization security
• Update Gitea to version 1.27.3 or later
• Review compensating controls for exposed systems while remediation is scheduled and verified
• Check relevant monitoring, detection, and logs for exposed assets that need extra review
• Track exceptions, retest remediated assets, and close the item only after evidence is documented
• Confirm whether affected product deployments exist in managed environments and assign an owner for follow-up

Evidence notes

The CVE Program record and NVD vulnerability detail provide official information on the vulnerability. Gitea's security advisory and release notes offer additional context. Evidence is limited to public CVE Program and NVD records. Defenders should verify Gitea instance configuration and assess security impact based on available information.

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.