go-vikunja/vikunja · Security
Vikunja: Every /api/v2 pre-auth endpoint is unthrottled on a stock install while its /api/v1 twin is rate limited
- GHSA ID
- GHSA-6rvj-qwjf-3m4q
- CVE ID
- CVE-2026-91972
- Severity
- high
- Published
- Updated
- CVSS v4
- 8.7 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Description
Summary
registerAPIRoutesV2 never applies the unconditional pre-auth rate-limit floor (unauthRateLimit()) to the v2 public routes — it passes that limiter only to /api/v2/ws — and otherwise relies on setupRateLimit, which registers nothing when ratelimit.enabled is false (the default). So on a stock install every v2 pre-auth endpoint (login, register, password-reset token, oauth token) is unthrottled, while its v1 twin is throttled.
Details
unauthRateLimit() -> perMinuteIPRateLimit("noauth", RateLimitNoAuthRoutesLimit) (pkg/routes/rate_limit.go, ~lines 100-118) is an unconditional per-IP floor (default 10/60s) that deliberately ignores RateLimitEnabled, which is why v1's pre-auth routes are throttled even with the global limiter off. v1 applies it: ur := a.Group(""); ur.Use(unauthRateLimit()) (pkg/routes/routes.go ~line 459). registerAPIRoutesV2 (~lines 405-431) passes the unauthRateLimit() instance only to /api/v2/ws; its auth routes get only setupRateLimit(a, ...), which is config-gated and registers nothing by default.
PoC (verified at runtime against v2.5.0)
POST /api/v1/login x25 -> 429 from attempt 5
POST /api/v2/login x25 -> 403 x25, 429 x0
POST /api/v1/user/password/token -> 429 (throttled)
POST /api/v2/user/password/token x20 -> 404 x20, 429 x0
Request bodies are byte-identical across versions (shared user.Login / user.PasswordTokenRequest). Both v2 endpoints reach their handlers (403/404, not route-404), so the comparison is valid.
Impact
The pre-auth rate-limit floor — the instance's only default anti-brute-force / anti-abuse control — is absent on all v2 public endpoints. Enables unbounded credential guessing, account-enumeration probing, and password-reset flooding on a default install. Reported as an authentication-control bypass, not a DoS.
Fix
Apply unauthRateLimit() to the v2 public route group, matching v1.
CWEs
- CWE-307 · Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts
References
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/security/advisories/GHSA-6rvj-qwjf-3m4q ↗
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-91972 ↗
- https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/releases/tag/v2.6.0 ↗
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/vikunja-before-2.6.0-authentication-bypass-via-unthrottled-api ↗
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-6rvj-qwjf-3m4q ↗