# CVE-2020-10538: Weak cryptography in n/a

> Epikur stores user passwords as unsalted MD5 hashes, allowing attackers to recover credentials via brute-force or rainbow tables.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 5 Feb 2021
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vffp-xx76-rfqc

## What is CVE-2020-10538?

CVE-2020-10538 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 5 Feb 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Epikur before 20.1.1. It stores the secret passwords of the users as MD5 hashes in the database. MD5 can be brute-forced efficiently and should not be used for such purposes. Additionally, since no salt is used, rainbow tables can speed up the attack.

Weakness: CWE-916 (Use of Password Hash With Insufficient Computational Effort)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-10538?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Epikur Epikur.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-10538?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-10538 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-10538 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-10538 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-10539](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10539/): Hardcoded credentials in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2020-10537](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10537/): Auth bypass in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-10538 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-10538 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 5 Feb 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-10538 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-2020-10538/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10538/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-10538
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-10538
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-10538

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10538/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.