# CVE-2026-72917: AnythingLLM: Password recovery accepts one recovery code twice after whitespace normalization

> An attacker can bypass password recovery checks by submitting a single valid code twice with whitespace variations, leading to account takeover.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 10 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 12 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vv8w-wg6r-hq56, MINI-qcmw-w26w-632p

## What is CVE-2026-72917?

CVE-2026-72917 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Mintplex-Labs anything-llm, published on 10 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

AnythingLLM is an application that turns pieces of content into context that any LLM can use as references during chatting. From 1.0.0 to 1.15.0, AnythingLLM's unauthenticated account-recovery flow in server/utils/PasswordRecovery/index.js uses recoverAccount() to deduplicate the raw recoveryCodes values before trimming them, so one valid code submitted twice with different surrounding whitespace can satisfy the two-code check. Each normalized value can also match the same stored hash instead of consuming a distinct hash. An attacker who knows the target username and one recovery code can call POST /api/system/recover-account in multi-user mode, receive a password-reset token, and use POST /api/system/reset-password to take over the account, including an administrator account.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication), CWE-180 (Incorrect Behavior Order: Validate Before Canonicalize)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72917?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-72917?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-72917 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72917 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-72917 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-72917 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Mintplex-Labs anything-llm, published on 10 Aug 2026. 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-2026-72917 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Mintplex-Labs anything-llm. 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-2026-72917/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72917/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72917
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72917
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-72917

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72917/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.