9.8
CRITICAL CVSS 3.1
CVE-2023-54391
Proxmox VE 7.0-8.0 Authentication Bypass via tfa-challenge Parameter
Description

Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) 7.0 through 8.0 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in libpve-access-control before 8.0.4 that allows unauthenticated attackers to authenticate as any existing enabled user without a configured second factor by supplying an arbitrary tfa-challenge value in the API login endpoint. Attackers can send a POST request to the access ticket API endpoint with any value in the tfa-challenge parameter to completely skip password verification, gaining unauthorized access including to the root@pam account. All affected releases are end of life.

INFO

Published Date :

Sept. 1, 2026, 10:17 p.m.

Last Modified :

Sept. 1, 2026, 10:17 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2023-54391 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

No affected product recoded yet

CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 3.1 CRITICAL 83251b91-4cc7-4094-a5c7-464a1b83ea10
CVSS 3.1 CRITICAL [email protected]
CVSS 4.0 CRITICAL 83251b91-4cc7-4094-a5c7-464a1b83ea10
CVSS 4.0 CRITICAL [email protected]
Solution
Upgrade Proxmox VE to a version addressing the authentication bypass vulnerability.
  • Upgrade Proxmox VE to version 8.0.4 or later.
  • Ensure all affected systems are updated.
  • Remove or disable end-of-life versions.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2023-54391 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2023-54391 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2023-54391 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2023-54391 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Sep. 01, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Tag unsupported-when-assigned
    Added Description Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) 7.0 through 8.0 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in libpve-access-control before 8.0.4 that allows unauthenticated attackers to authenticate as any existing enabled user without a configured second factor by supplying an arbitrary tfa-challenge value in the API login endpoint. Attackers can send a POST request to the access ticket API endpoint with any value in the tfa-challenge parameter to completely skip password verification, gaining unauthorized access including to the root@pam account. All affected releases are end of life.
    Added CVSS V4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    Added CWE CWE-304
    Added Affected New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2023/54xxx/CVE-2023-54391.json">CVE-2023-54391</a>
    Added Reference https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-virtual-environment-security-advisories.149331/page-4#post-867929
    Added Reference https://git.proxmox.com/?p=pve-access-control.git;a=commit;h=032e7d6d441f89a48cadfd7f47e957c8a561c022
    Added Reference https://git.proxmox.com/?p=pve-access-control.git;a=commit;h=032e7d6d441f89a48cadfd7f47e957c8a561c022
    Added Reference https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/proxmox-ve-authentication-bypass-via-tfa-challenge-parameter
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.