CVE-2021-41171 Bypass bruteforce protection on login form in elabftw
Attackers can bypass brute-force login protection in eLabFTW by using forged PHPSESSID values, facilitating password guessing attacks.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2021-41171?
CVE-2021-41171 is a medium-severity vulnerability in elabftw, published on 22 Oct 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
eLabFTW is an open source electronic lab notebook manager for research teams. In versions of eLabFTW before 4.1.0, it allows attackers to bypass a brute-force protection mechanism by using many different forged PHPSESSID values in HTTP Cookie header. This issue has been addressed by implementing brute force login protection, as recommended by Owasp with Device Cookies. This mechanism will not impact users and will effectively thwart any brute-force attempts at guessing passwords. The only correct way to address this is to upgrade to version 4.1.0. Adding rate limitation upstream of the eLabFTW service is of course a valid option, with or without upgrading.
Weakness: CWE-307
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-41171?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Elabftw Elabftw.
How do I fix CVE-2021-41171?
No fix has been published for CVE-2021-41171 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2021-41171 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-41171 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in elabftw
- CVE-2021-43834 Incorrect Authentication in elabftw
- CVE-2024-28100 Stored Cross-site Scripting leading to arbitrary actions taken on behalf of users in elabftw
- CVE-2019-12185 File upload in n/a
- CVE-2024-25632 Unauthorised granting of administrator privileges over arbitrary teams under certain circumstances
- CVE-2025-25206 Incorrect input validation could allow an authenticated user to read sensitive information
Sources
Also known as GHSA-q67h-5pc3-g6jv.