CVE-2026-78655: Software Security Vulnerability Vulnerability

CRITICAL
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-vwg8-cr9j-895f
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CVSS 9.1
CWE-307
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-78655 is a CRITICAL (CVSS 9.1) security vulnerability vulnerability (CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts) affecting Software libraries in the Maven ecosystem. The weakness occurs when the product does not implement sufficient measures to prevent multiple failed authentication attempts within a short time frame.. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2026-78655 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-78655
GHSA Identifier GHSA-vwg8-cr9j-895f
Severity CRITICAL
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 9.1
CWE Classification CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts
Affected Product Software
Package Ecosystem Maven
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 9.1

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:H/I:H/A:N).

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 High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability None (A:N)

How to Fix CVE-2026-78655

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

Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

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

mvn dependency:tree

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Java application is affected by CVE-2026-78655, inspect your build dependencies using the Maven Dependency Plugin:

mvn dependency:tree

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

Note: The mvn dependency:tree command inspects the resolved dependency graph declared in your project's POM files; it does not perform automated security scanning or inspect runtime dynamic classpaths. Always verify runtime container classpaths and shaded JARs.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts, where the product does not implement sufficient measures to prevent multiple failed authentication attempts within a short time frame. In Software, 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

Punk::Plugin::TOTP versions before 0.05 for Perl allow the second-factor attempt limit to be reset by replaying an earlier session cookie because the challenge route counts failures in the session. The POST handler on challenge_path keeps the failure count as tries inside the totp_pending record in the session, raising it on each rejected code and deleting the pending record once it reaches attempts, five by default. Punk::Session carries the session in a signed cookie unless the application declares a store, and keeps no server-side record, so an earlier value of the same session stays valid until the expiry stamped inside it. A client that saves the cookie before its failed attempts and presents it again gets the pending record back with its counter, and the limit never fires. The replayed record is accepted while its own expiry, pending_ttl seconds from the challenge and 300 by default, has not passed. Sessions declared with a store are not affected: the pending record and its counter then live server-side. The attempt limit does not bound guessing of the second factor, which is left to the per-address rate limit the plugin registers on the same path, 30 requests per 60 seconds.

References

NVD — CVE-2026-78655 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-78655
metacpan.org/release/lnation/pun... WEB
https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-0.32/view/lib/Punk/Session.pm
metacpan.org/release/lnation/pun... WEB
https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-TOTP-0.04/source/include/ptotp/ptotp_plugin.h
metacpan.org/release/lnation/pun... WEB
https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-TOTP-0.04/view/lib/Punk/Plugin/TOTP.pm
metacpan.org/release/lnation/pun... WEB
https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-TOTP-0.05/source/Changes
Software Security Information SECURITY
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/25/7

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-78655?
CVE-2026-78655 is a security vulnerability in Software classified as a security vulnerability vulnerability under CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts.
Which Software versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches.
What version fixes CVE-2026-78655?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-78655?
CVE-2026-78655 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.1 (CRITICAL) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-78655?
CVE-2026-78655 is classified under CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts (The product does not implement sufficient measures to prevent multiple failed authentication attempts within a short time frame.).
How can I check Maven dependencies for CVE-2026-78655?
Run the dependency tree command: 'mvn dependency:tree'. 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
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-vwg8-cr9j-895f",
  "modified" : "2026-08-26T21:31:39Z",
  "published" : "2026-08-26T00:30:52Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-78655" ],
  "details" : "Punk::Plugin::TOTP versions before 0.05 for Perl allow the second-factor attempt limit to be reset by replaying an earlier session cookie because the challenge route counts failures in the session.\n\nThe POST handler on challenge_path keeps the failure count as tries inside the totp_pending record in the session, raising it on each rejected code and deleting the pending record once it reaches attempts, five by default. Punk::Session carries the session in a signed cookie unless the application declares a store, and keeps no server-side record, so an earlier value of the same session stays valid until the expiry stamped inside it. A client that saves the cookie before its failed attempts and presents it again gets the pending record back with its counter, and the limit never fires. The replayed record is accepted while its own expiry, pending_ttl seconds from the challenge and 300 by default, has not passed.\n\nSessions declared with a store are not affected: the pending record and its counter then live server-side.\n\nThe attempt limit does not bound guessing of the second factor, which is left to the per-address rate limit the plugin registers on the same path, 30 requests per 60 seconds.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-78655"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-0.32/view/lib/Punk/Session.pm"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-TOTP-0.04/source/include/ptotp/ptotp_plugin.h"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-TOTP-0.04/view/lib/Punk/Plugin/TOTP.pm"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://metacpan.org/release/LNATION/Punk-TOTP-0.05/source/Changes"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/25/7"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-307" ],
    "severity" : "CRITICAL",
    "github_reviewed" : false,
    "github_reviewed_at" : null,
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-08-25T22:17:06Z"
  }
}