GHSA-r6w9-259g-gwrv
Vikunja: Plaintext storage of password-reset/email-confirm tokens in database enables account takeover on DB read access
Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go | code.vikunja.io/api | < 2.4.0 | 2.4.0 |
Details
As written in the advisory (Markdown source, shown as plain text).
### Summary
Vikunja stores password-reset, email-confirmation, and account-deletion tokens in the `user_tokens` table in **plaintext**. If an attacker gains read access to the database through a backup leak, misconfigured storage, or SQL-level exposure, they can immediately use pending tokens to take over user accounts without knowing passwords.
### Details
`pkg/user/token.go` — `genToken()` stores the raw random string directly:
```go
func genToken(u *User, kind TokenKind) (*Token, error) {
tokenStr, err := utils.CryptoRandomString(tokenSize)
...
return &Token{
UserID: u.ID,
Kind: kind,
Token: tokenStr, // stored as-is, no hashing
}, nil
}
```
Lookup also uses plaintext equality:
```go
func getToken(s *xorm.Session, token string, kind TokenKind) (t *Token, err error) {
has, err := s.Where("kind = ? AND token = ?", kind, token).Get(t)
}
```
Affected token types:
- `TokenPasswordReset` (`pkg/user/user_password_reset.go:120`)
- `TokenEmailConfirm` (`pkg/user/user_create.go:101`, `pkg/user/update_email.go:88`)
- `TokenAccountDeletion` (`pkg/user/delete.go:102`)
Note: CalDAV tokens correctly use `generateHashedToken` with bcrypt — the same protection is absent for the above types.
### PoC
```sql
-- Attacker with DB read dumps all pending password-reset tokens:
SELECT u.email, t.token FROM user_tokens t
JOIN users u ON u.id = t.user_id WHERE t.kind = 1;
-- Then takes over any account:
curl -X POST https://vikunja.example.com/api/v1/user/password/reset \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"token": "<plaintext_from_db>", "new_password": "AttackerPass1!"}'
```
### Impact
Any read access to the database (leaked backup, cloud misconfiguration, secondary SQLi) allows an attacker to take over every user account with a pending reset token within the 24-hour token lifetime. Full account takeover including admin accounts.
### Fix
Replace `genToken` with `generateHashedToken` for `TokenPasswordReset`, `TokenEmailConfirm`, and `TokenAccountDeletion`. Update the corresponding lookup to use bcrypt comparison (`bcrypt.CompareHashAndPassword`) rather than direct SQL equality, mirroring the existing CalDAV token implementation in the same file.
If possible, please apply for a CVE number when posting.
References
External links from the advisory. They lead to third-party sites.
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/security/advisories/GHSA-r6w9-259g-gwrv
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/commit/00fd2c6155c01faae99be4226b931d8091fd6323
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/commit/3a0ea15d8c18ff960bc98ae39950fa7a14b0af7d
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/commit/e31ea2de5040fa63bc97cf4df63bafed3bd9ad85
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/releases/tag/v2.4.0