# CVE-2023-48712: User authorization bug leading to privilege escalation in warpgate

> Attackers can escalate privileges to admin by exploiting an authentication flaw in warpgate when single-factor authentication is enabled.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 24 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 2 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-c94j-vqr5-3mxr

## What is CVE-2023-48712?

CVE-2023-48712 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in warp-tech warpgate, published on 24 Nov 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Warpgate is an open source SSH, HTTPS and MySQL bastion host for Linux. In affected versions there is a privilege escalation vulnerability through a non-admin user's account. Limited users can impersonate another user's account if only single-factor authentication is configured. If a user knows an admin username, opens the login screen and attempts to authenticate with an incorrect password they can subsequently enter a valid non-admin username and password they will be logged in as the admin user. All installations prior to version 0.9.0 are affected. All users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-48712?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Warpgate Project Warpgate.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-48712?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-48712 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-48712 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-48712 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in warp-tech warpgate

- [CVE-2023-37268](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-37268/): User login confusion with SSO in warpgate (medium 6.4)
- [CVE-2026-44347](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-44347/): Warpgate: SSO CSRF -- State Token Not Validated on Return (medium 5.8)
- [CVE-2023-43660](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-43660/): SSH key password bypassed in warpgate (medium 4.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-48712 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-48712 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in warp-tech warpgate, published on 24 Nov 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-48712 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: warp-tech warpgate. 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-2023-48712/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-48712/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-48712
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-48712
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-48712

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-48712/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.