# CVE-2014-9117: Security feature bypass in n/a

> Remote attackers can bypass CAPTCHA protection in MantisBT by exploiting predictable public_key values, allowing automated abuse of forms.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 6 Dec 2014
- **Updated:** 6 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-wpg2-2xjr-p95h

## What is CVE-2014-9117?

CVE-2014-9117 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mantisbt Mantisbt, published on 6 Dec 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

MantisBT before 1.2.18 uses the public_key parameter value as the key to the CAPTCHA answer, which allows remote attackers to bypass the CAPTCHA protection mechanism by leveraging knowledge of a CAPTCHA answer for a public_key parameter value, as demonstrated by E4652 for the public_key value 0.

Weakness: CWE-284 (Improper Access Control)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-9117?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mantisbt Mantisbt.

## How do I fix CVE-2014-9117?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2014-9117 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-9117 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Mantisbt Mantisbt

- [CVE-2019-15074](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-15074/): MantisBT allows cross-site scripting (XSS) via crafted filename (critical 9.6)
- [CVE-2026-30849](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-30849/): MantisBT SOAP API has an authentication bypass vulnerability on MySQL (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2025-47776](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-47776/): MantisBT: Authentication bypass for some passwords due to PHP type juggling (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2017-7615](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7615/): MantisBT allows arbitrary password reset (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-33517](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33517/): MantisBT Vulnerable to Stored HTML Injection in Tag Delete Confirmation (high 8.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2014-9117 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2014-9117 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mantisbt Mantisbt, published on 6 Dec 2014. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-9117 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Mantisbt Mantisbt. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-9117/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-9117/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2014-9117
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2014-9117
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2014-9117

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-9117/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.