# CVE-2017-18486: Weak cryptography in n/a

> Attackers can escalate privileges and take over accounts by exploiting a weak PRNG to forge authentication tokens in Jitbit Helpdesk.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 9 Aug 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xp26-jqrv-cc5r

## What is CVE-2017-18486?

CVE-2017-18486 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Aug 2019. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Jitbit Helpdesk before 9.0.3 allows remote attackers to escalate privileges because of mishandling of the User/AutoLogin userHash parameter. By inspecting the token value provided in a password reset link, a user can leverage a weak PRNG to recover the shared secret used by the server for remote authentication. The shared secret can be used to escalate privileges by forging new tokens for any user. These tokens can be used to automatically log in as the affected user.

Weakness: CWE-332 (Insufficient Entropy in PRNG)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-18486?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Jitbit Helpdesk.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-18486?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-18486 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-18486 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-18486 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Utility to derive the shared secret on a JitBit Helpdesk install which can be used for authentication bypass (CVE-2017-18486) (github_poc): https://github.com/Kc57/JitBit_Helpdesk_Auth_Bypass

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-18486 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-18486 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Aug 2019. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-18486 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2017-18486/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-18486/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-18486
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-18486
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-18486

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-18486/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.