Skip to content

NodeBB account takeover via SSO plugins

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Sep 1, 2022 in NodeBB/NodeBB • Updated Jan 27, 2023

Package

npm nodebb (npm)

Affected versions

<= 1.17.1

Patched versions

1.17.2

Description

This is a historical security advisory, pertaining to a vulnerability that was reported, patched, and published in 2021. It is listed here for completeness and for CVE tracking purposes.

Impact

Due to an unnecessarily strict conditional in the code handling the first step of the SSO process, the pre-existing logic that added (and later checked) a nonce was inadvertently rendered opt-in instead of opt-out.

This re-exposed a vulnerability in that a specially crafted MITM attack could theoretically take over another user account during the single sign-on process.

Patches

The issue has been fully patched as of v1.17.2.

The patch commit can be found at NodeBB/NodeBB@a2400f6

Workarounds

Site maintainers can cherry-pick NodeBB/NodeBB@a2400f6 into their codebase to patch the exploit.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

References

@julianlam julianlam published to NodeBB/NodeBB Sep 1, 2022
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Sep 2, 2022
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Sep 16, 2022
Reviewed Sep 16, 2022
Last updated Jan 27, 2023

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.163%
(54th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2022-36076

GHSA ID

GHSA-xmgg-fx9p-prq6

Source code

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.