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High, CVSS 8.3amended

Better Auth has an account takeover issue via OAuth auto-link to unverified pre-registered email

CVE-2026-53516GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7

What to do

Vendor fix available. Upgrade each affected package to the fixed version on its release line (better-auth 1.6.11), redeploy, then verify what is actually installed.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

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Affected packages

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
8.3 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
EPSS
  • CVE-2026-53516: 0.29% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 21.53 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Am I affected? Users are affected if all of the following are true: - Their application uses better-auth at a version < 1.6.11 on the stable line, or any current next pre-release. - emailAndPassword.enabled: true is set in their application's betterAuth({ ... }) configuration. - At least one OAuth or SSO provider is configured (any built-in social provider, or genericOAuth(...), or any provider via @better-auth/sso). - account.accountLinking.disableImplicitLinking is not set to true. - account.accountLinking.enabled is not set to false. Setting either disableImplicitLinking: true or enabled: false closes the hole at the cost of breaking the standard "add another login method" UX. emailAndPassword.requireEmailVerification: true does not mitigate, because the link-time emailVerified flip promotes the attacker's row to verified, after which the password login becomes usable. Fix: 1. Upgrade to better-auth@1.6.11 or later. 2. If developers cannot upgrade, see workarounds below. Summary…

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 2 · amended ·

    Amended from ghsa record GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7

  2. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from osv record GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7

Agent brief

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-53516

Advisory: Better Auth has an account takeover issue via OAuth auto-link to unverified pre-registered email
IDs: CVE-2026-53516, GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-53516 (revision 2, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 12:57 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.3)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: better-auth 1.6.11. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- npm better-auth: affected < 1.6.11; fixed in 1.6.11

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- `npm ls better-auth --all`: lists every installed copy and version, including transitive ones. Run in the project root after `npm ci`.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on better-auth.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7 (OSV record GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7 lists affected ranges: npm better-auth >=0 <1.6.11 (fixed))
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-g38m-r43w-p2q7 lists affected ranges: npm better-auth >=0 <1.6.11)

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