CVE-2023-26481
Insufficient user check in FlowTokens by Email stage
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
Description
authentik is an open-source Identity Provider. Due to an insufficient access check, a recovery flow link that is created by an admin (or sent via email by an admin) can be used to set the password for any arbitrary user. This attack is only possible if a recovery flow exists, which has both an Identification and an Email stage bound to it. If the flow has policies on the identification stage to skip it when the flow is restored (by checking `request.context['is_restored']`), the flow is not affected by this. With this flow in place, an administrator must create a recovery Link or send a recovery URL to the attacker, who can, due to the improper validation of the token create, set the password for any account. Regardless, for custom recovery flows it is recommended to add a policy that checks if the flow is restored, and skips the identification stage. This issue has been fixed in versions 2023.2.3, 2023.1.3 and 2022.12.2.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 9 days later
· 9 days later
Published
- 24 months later
· 24 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Critical9.1 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.27% · top 80% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.1.
Weakness
Affected products
- affected < 2023.2.3
- affected < 2023.1.3
- affected < 2022.12.2
References (2)
- https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/security/advisories/GHSA-3xf5-pqvf-rqq3 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://goauthentik.io/docs/releases/2023.2#fixed-in-202323 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2023-26481)Record last updated .