# CVE-2024-25633: In eLabFTW, if administrators can create users, users can too

> Regular users can create validated accounts in their team, potentially leading to unauthorized access or data modification in eLabFTW.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 15 Aug 2024
- **Updated:** 19 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-v677-8x8p-636v

## What is CVE-2024-25633?

CVE-2024-25633 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in elabftw, published on 15 Aug 2024. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

eLabFTW is an open source electronic lab notebook for research labs. In an eLabFTW system, one can configure who is allowed to create new user accounts. A vulnerability has been found starting in version 4.4.0 and prior to version 5.0.0 that allows regular users to create new, validated accounts in their team. If the system has anonymous access enabled (disabled by default) an unauthenticated user can create regular users in any team. This vulnerability has been fixed since version 5.0.0, released on February 17th 2024. Some workarounds are available. Disabling both options that allow *administrators* to create users will provide a mitigation. Additionally, disabling anonymous user access will stop anonymous access (including using existing access keys).

Weakness: CWE-266 (Incorrect Privilege Assignment)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-25633?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Elabftw Elabftw.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-25633?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-25633 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-25633 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-25633 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in elabftw

- [CVE-2021-43834](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-43834/): Incorrect Authentication in elabftw (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2024-28100](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-28100/): Stored Cross-site Scripting leading to arbitrary actions taken on behalf of users in elabftw (high 8.9)
- [CVE-2019-12185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-12185/): File upload in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2024-25632](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-25632/): Unauthorised granting of administrator privileges over arbitrary teams under certain circumstances (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2025-25206](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-25206/): Incorrect input validation could allow an authenticated user to read sensitive information (high 8.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-25633 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-25633 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in elabftw, published on 15 Aug 2024. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-25633 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: elabftw. 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-2024-25633/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-25633/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-25633
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-25633
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-25633

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-25633/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.