# CVE-2026-23878: HotCRP vulnerable to exposure of submitted documents

> Authors can download documents from any submission via the document API due to missing authorization checks in HotCRP.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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:** 19 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 20 Jan 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vh3x-xwj4-jvqx

## What is CVE-2026-23878?

CVE-2026-23878 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in kohler hotcrp, published on 19 Jan 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

HotCRP is conference review software. Starting in commit aa20ef288828b04550950cf67c831af8a525f508 and prior to commit ceacd5f1476458792c44c6a993670f02c984b4a0, authors with at least one submission on a HotCRP site could use the document API to download any documents (PDFs, attachments) associated with any submission. The problem was patched in commit ceacd5f1476458792c44c6a993670f02c984b4a0.

Weakness: CWE-201 (Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23878?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Hotcrp Hotcrp.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23878?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-23878 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-23878 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23878 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in kohler hotcrp

- [CVE-2026-23836](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23836/): HotCRP vulnerable to remote code execution through formulas (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2026-25156](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-25156/): HotCRP vulnerable to stored XSS via comment attachments (high 7.3)
- [CVE-2022-4819](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-4819/): HotCRP cross site scripting (low 2.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-23878 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23878 is a medium-severity missing authorization vulnerability in kohler hotcrp, published on 19 Jan 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23878 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: kohler hotcrp. 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-2026-23878/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23878/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23878
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23878
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23878

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23878/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.