CVE-2026-84731: Pre-Authentication Admin Bypass and Remote Code Execution in Nutanix Prism Gateway inside AOS

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-15 · updated 2026-10-16
Weakness: CWE-290

Description

An unauthenticated remote attacker can bypass authentication and gain full access to administrative API endpoints in Nutanix Prism Element by including a crafted internal management HTTP header. The vulnerability is caused by a misconfiguration in the application's authentication filters. Consequently, the server responds with a Set-Cookie header containing a valid JSESSIONID. This session cookie decodes to a JSON Web Token (JWT) granting maximum cluster administrative privileges. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to execute root-level commands on all Controller VMs (CVMs) in the cluster, leading to complete cluster destruction and unauthorized access to VM memory and virtual disks.

Affected products

Nutanix Acropolis Operating System (AOS): before 7.3.1.18; from 7.5 before 7.5.2; from 7.6 before 7.6.0.8 — fixed in 7.3.1.18, 7.5.2, 7.6.0.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Nutanix Acropolis Operating System (AOS) 7.3.1.18, 7.5.2, 7.6.0.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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