CVE-2023-38492: Getkirby/cms Denial of Service Vulnerability

MODERATE
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-3v6j-v3qc-cxff
CVSS 5.3
CWE-770
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2023-38492 is a MODERATE (CVSS 5.3) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling) affecting Getkirby/cms libraries in the Packagist ecosystem. The issue involves denial of service from unlimited password lengths. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, 3.9.6.

CVE-2023-38492 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-38492
GHSA Identifier GHSA-3v6j-v3qc-cxff
Severity MODERATE
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 5.3
CWE Classification CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Affected Product Getkirby/cms
Package Ecosystem Packagist
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 5.3

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability Low (A:L)

How to Fix CVE-2023-38492

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Getkirby/cms dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

getkirby/cms fixed: 3.5.8.3
Upgrade getkirby/cms to 3.5.8.3
getkirby/cms fixed: 3.6.6.3
Upgrade getkirby/cms to 3.6.6.3
getkirby/cms fixed: 3.7.5.2
Upgrade getkirby/cms to 3.7.5.2
getkirby/cms fixed: 3.8.4.1
Upgrade getkirby/cms to 3.8.4.1
getkirby/cms fixed: 3.9.6
Upgrade getkirby/cms to 3.9.6
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:

inspect dependencies for getkirby/cms

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2023-38492, inspect your project dependencies for Getkirby/cms:

inspect dependencies for getkirby/cms

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Getkirby/cms in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 3.5.8.3), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling, where the product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated. In Getkirby/cms, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### TL;DR This vulnerability affects all Kirby sites with user accounts (unless Kirby's API and Panel are disabled in the config). The real-world impact of this vulnerability is limited, however we still recommend to update to one of the patch releases because they also fix more severe vulnerabilities. ---- ### Introduction Denial of service (DoS) is a type of attack in which an attacker floods a service with the intention to limit performance or availability for legitimate users of the service. In the variation described in this advisory (a so called application layer denial of service attack), it is performed by causing a computationally expensive task to be run on the server. This may then cause a performance bottleneck. ### Impact Kirby's authentication endpoint did not limit the password length. This allowed attackers to provide a password with a length up to the server's maximum request body length. Validating that password against the user's actual password requires hashing the provided password, which requires more CPU and memory resources (and therefore processing time) the longer the provided password gets. This could be abused by an attacker to cause the website to become unresponsive or unavailable. Because Kirby comes with a built-in brute force protection, the impact of this vulnerability is limited to 10 failed logins from each IP address and 10 failed logins for each existing user per hour. ### Patches The problem has been patched in [Kirby 3.5.8.3](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.5.8.3), [Kirby 3.6.6.3](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.6.6.3), [Kirby 3.7.5.2](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.7.5.2), [Kirby 3.8.4.1](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.8.4.1) and [Kirby 3.9.6](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.9.6). Please update to one of these or a [later version](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases) to fix the vulnerability. In all of the mentioned releases, we have added password length limits in the affected code so that passwords longer than 1000 bytes are immediately blocked, both when setting a password and when logging in. ### Credits Thanks to Shankar Acharya (@5hank4r) for responsibly reporting the identified issue.

CVE-2023-38492 Affected Getkirby/cms Versions

5 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
3.5.8.33.6.6.33.7.5.23.8.4.13.9.6
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
getkirby/cms
Packagist
< 3.5.8.3
3.5.8.3
getkirby/cms
Packagist
≥ 3.6.0
< 3.6.6.3
3.6.6.3
getkirby/cms
Packagist
≥ 3.7.0
< 3.7.5.2
3.7.5.2
getkirby/cms
Packagist
≥ 3.8.0
< 3.8.4.1
3.8.4.1
getkirby/cms
Packagist
≥ 3.9.0
< 3.9.6
3.9.6

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-38492?
CVE-2023-38492 is a security vulnerability in Getkirby/cms involving Denial of service from unlimited password lengths under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling.
Which Getkirby/cms versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, 3.9.6 across affected packages: getkirby/cms.
What version fixes CVE-2023-38492?
Upgrading to 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, 3.9.6 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is getkirby/cms affected?
Yes, getkirby/cms is affected in releases prior to 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, 3.9.6. Upgrade your dependency to 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, 3.9.6 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-38492?
CVE-2023-38492 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (MODERATE) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-38492?
CVE-2023-38492 is classified under CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.).
How can I check Packagist dependencies for CVE-2023-38492?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for getkirby/cms'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-3v6j-v3qc-cxff",
  "modified" : "2023-07-28T15:34:13Z",
  "published" : "2023-07-28T15:34:13Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-38492" ],
  "summary" : "Denial of service from unlimited password lengths",
  "details" : "### TL;DR\n\nThis vulnerability affects all Kirby sites with user accounts (unless Kirby's API and Panel are disabled in the config). The real-world impact of this vulnerability is limited, however we still recommend to update to one of the patch releases because they also fix more severe vulnerabilities.\n\n----\n\n### Introduction\n\nDenial of service (DoS) is a type of attack in which an attacker floods a service with the intention to limit performance or availability for legitimate users of the service.\n\nIn the variation described in this advisory (a so called application layer denial of service attack), it is performed by causing a computationally expensive task to be run on the server. This may then cause a performance bottleneck.\n\n### Impact\n\nKirby's authentication endpoint did not limit the password length. This allowed attackers to provide a password with a length up to the server's maximum request body length. Validating that password against the user's actual password requires hashing the provided password, which requires more CPU and memory resources (and therefore processing time) the longer the provided password gets. This could be abused by an attacker to cause the website to become unresponsive or unavailable.\n\nBecause Kirby comes with a built-in brute force protection, the impact of this vulnerability is limited to 10 failed logins from each IP address and 10 failed logins for each existing user per hour.\n\n### Patches\n\nThe problem has been patched in [Kirby 3.5.8.3](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.5.8.3), [Kirby 3.6.6.3](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.6.6.3), [Kirby 3.7.5.2](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.7.5.2), [Kirby 3.8.4.1](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.8.4.1) and [Kirby 3.9.6](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.9.6). Please update to one of these or a [later version](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases) to fix the vulnerability.\n\nIn all of the mentioned releases, we have added password length limits in the affected code so that passwords longer than 1000 bytes are immediately blocked, both when setting a password and when logging in.\n\n### Credits\n\nThanks to Shankar Acharya (@5hank4r) for responsibly reporting the identified issue.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L"
  } ],
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    },
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    "ranges" : [ {
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    "package" : {
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    "ranges" : [ {
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    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
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  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-38492"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/commit/0e10ce3b0c2b88656564b8ff518ddc99136ac43e"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/getkirby/kirby"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.5.8.3"
  }, {
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    "url" : "https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.6.6.3"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.7.5.2"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.8.4.1"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.9.6"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
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    "severity" : "MODERATE",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-07-28T15:34:13Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2023-07-27T16:15:11Z"
  }
}