# CVE-2021-41093: Account takeover when having only access to a user's short lived token

> Attackers with valid short-lived tokens can take over accounts by changing email addresses, requiring an upgrade to Wire iOS.

- **Severity:** High 7.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Oct 2021
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024

## What is CVE-2021-41093?

CVE-2021-41093 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in wireapp wire-ios, published on 4 Oct 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Wire is an open source secure messenger. In affected versions if the an attacker gets an old but valid access token they can take over an account by changing the email. This issue has been resolved in version 3.86 which uses a new endpoint which additionally requires an authentication cookie. See wire-ios-sync-engine and wire-ios-transport references. This is the root advisory that pulls the changes together.

Weakness: CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization), CWE-285 (Improper Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-41093?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Wire Wire.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-41093?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-41093 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-41093 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-41093 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in wireapp wire-ios

- [CVE-2020-27853](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-27853/): Other in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-32665](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-32665/): Verified groups not reliable (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-15258](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-15258/): Insecure use of shell.openExternal in Wire (high 8.0)
- [CVE-2018-8909](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-8909/): Path traversal in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2023-22737](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22737/): wire-server vulnerable to unauthorized removal of Bots from Conversations (medium 6.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-41093 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-41093 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in wireapp wire-ios, published on 4 Oct 2021. 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-2021-41093 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: wireapp wire-ios. 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-2021-41093/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-41093/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-41093
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41093
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-41093

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-41093/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.