# CVE-2020-15149: Account takeover in NodeBB

> Attackers can take over any user account and escalate privileges by sending a crafted socket.io request to the NodeBB forum server.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 19 Aug 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-hr66-c8pg-5mg7

## What is CVE-2020-15149?

CVE-2020-15149 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in NodeBB, published on 19 Aug 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

NodeBB before version 1.14.3 has a bug introduced in version 1.12.2 in the validation logic that makes it possible to change the password of any user on a running NodeBB forum by sending a specially crafted socket.io call to the server. This could lead to a privilege escalation event due via an account takeover. As a workaround you may cherry-pick the following commit from the project's repository to your running instance of NodeBB: 16cee1b03ba3eee177834a1fdac4aa8a12b39d2a. This is fixed in version 1.14.3.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication), CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-15149?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Nodebb Nodebb.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-15149?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-15149 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-15149 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-15149 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in NodeBB

- [CVE-2023-26045](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-26045/): NodeBB vulnerable to path traversal and code execution via prototype vulnerability (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2023-43187](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-43187/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-43786](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-43786/): API token verification can be bypassed (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-46164](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-46164/): Account takeover via prototype vulnerability (critical 9.4)
- [CVE-2022-36045](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-36045/): Account takeover via cryptographically weak PRNG in NodeBB Forum (critical 9.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-15149 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-15149 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in NodeBB, published on 19 Aug 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-15149 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: NodeBB. 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-2020-15149/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-15149/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-15149
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-15149
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-15149

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-15149/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.