# CVE-2023-22481: Sensitive information exposure in the logs of greader API in FreshRSS

> Attackers with log access can retrieve user passwords and API keys from FreshRSS logs due to sensitive data exposure during authentication failures.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 Mar 2023
- **Updated:** 25 Feb 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-8vvv-jxg6-8578

## What is CVE-2023-22481?

CVE-2023-22481 is a medium-severity vulnerability in FreshRSS, published on 6 Mar 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

FreshRSS is a self-hosted RSS feed aggregator. When using the greader API, the provided password is logged in clear in `users/_/log_api.txt` in the case where the authentication fails. The issues occurs in `authorizationToUser()` in `greader.php`. If there is an issue with the request or the credentials, `unauthorized()` or `badRequest()` is called. Both these functions are printing the return of `debugInfo()` in the logs.  `debugInfo()` will return the content of the request. By default, this will be saved in `users/_/log_api.txt` and if the const `COPY_LOG_TO_SYSLOG` is true, in syslogs as well. Exploiting this issue requires having access to logs produced by FreshRSS. Using the information from the logs, a malicious individual could get users' API keys (would be displayed if the users fills in a bad username) or passwords.

Weakness: CWE-532 (Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22481?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Freshrss Freshrss.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-22481?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22481 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-22481 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22481 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in FreshRSS

- [CVE-2025-54875](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-54875/): FreshRSS: Unauthorized creation of admin user when registration is enabled (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-54592](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-54592/): FreshRSS has Incomplete Session Termination on Logout (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2025-62166](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-62166/): FreshRSS has an IDOR which allows for viewing feeds of any user and leaking tokens (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-54591](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-54591/): FreshRSS: Unauthenticated users can view default user's information (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-58173](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-58173/): FreshRSS vulnerable to authenticated RCE via path traversal inside include() (high 7.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-22481 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-22481 is a medium-severity vulnerability in FreshRSS, published on 6 Mar 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22481 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: FreshRSS. 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-2023-22481/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22481/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22481
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22481
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-22481

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22481/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.