# CVE-2026-28510: elabftw allows MFA bypass during login

> Attackers with valid credentials can bypass multi-factor authentication to gain unauthorized access to eLabFTW accounts.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 5 May 2026
- **Updated:** 6 May 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x5wv-c9q4-fj65

## What is CVE-2026-28510?

CVE-2026-28510 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in elabftw, published on 5 May 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

eLabFTW is an open source electronic lab notebook. In elabftw versions through 5.4.1, the login flow did not reliably preserve the multi-factor authentication state across authentication steps. Under certain conditions, an attacker with valid primary credentials could complete authentication with an attacker-controlled TOTP secret and bypass the additional factor. This could result in unauthorized account access. This issue is fixed in version 5.4.2.

Weakness: CWE-302 (Authentication Bypass by Assumed-Immutable Data)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-28510?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Elabftw Elabftw.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-28510?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-28510 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-28510 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-28510 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-2026-28510 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-28510 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in elabftw, published on 5 May 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-28510 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-2026-28510/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-28510/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-28510
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-28510
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-28510

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-28510/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.