# CVE-2023-22746: CKAN is vulnerable to session secret shared across instances using Docker images

> Attackers can forge authentication requests in CKAN Docker instances using default shared secrets, leading to account takeover.

- **Severity:** High 8.6 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Feb 2023
- **Updated:** 10 Mar 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-pr8j-v4c8-h62x

## What is CVE-2023-22746?

CVE-2023-22746 is a high-severity vulnerability in ckan, published on 3 Feb 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

CKAN is an open-source DMS (data management system) for powering data hubs and data portals. When creating a new container based on one of the Docker images listed below, the same secret key was being used by default. If the users didn't set a custom value via environment variables in the `.env` file, that key was shared across different CKAN instances, making it easy to forge authentication requests. Users overriding the default secret key in their own `.env` file are not affected by this issue. Note that the legacy images (ckan/ckan) located in the main CKAN repo are not affected by this issue. The affected images are ckan/ckan-docker, (ckan/ckan-base images), okfn/docker-ckan (openknowledge/ckan-base and openknowledge/ckan-dev images)
keitaroinc/docker-ckan (keitaro/ckan images).

Weakness: CWE-344 (Use of Invariant Value in Dynamically Changing Context), CWE-330 (Use of Insufficiently Random Values)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22746?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Okfn Ckan.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-22746?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22746 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-22746 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22746 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in ckan

- [CVE-2023-32321](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-32321/): CKAN remote code execution and private information access via crafted resource ids (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2023-32696](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-32696/): Excessive permissions for ckan user (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2022-43685](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-43685/): CKAN contains Improper Authentication leading to account takeover (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-42031](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-42031/): CKAN: Unauthenticated SQL Injection and Authorization Bypass in `datastore_search_sql` (high 8.3)
- [CVE-2024-41675](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-41675/): CKAN has a Cross-site Scripting vector in the Datatables view plugin (medium 6.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-22746 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-22746 is a high-severity vulnerability in ckan, published on 3 Feb 2023. 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-2023-22746 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: ckan. 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-2023-22746/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22746/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22746
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-22746
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-22746

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-22746/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.