5.9
MEDIUM CVSS 3.1
CVE-2026-35597
Vikunja Affected by TOTP Brute-Force Due to Non-Functional Account Lockout
Description

Vikunja is an open-source self-hosted task management platform. Prior to 2.3.0, the TOTP failed-attempt lockout mechanism is non-functional due to a database transaction handling bug. When a TOTP validation fails, the login handler in pkg/routes/api/v1/login.go calls HandleFailedTOTPAuth and then unconditionally rolls back. HandleFailedTOTPAuth in pkg/user/totp.go uses an in-memory counter (key-value store) to track failed attempts. When the counter reaches 10, it calls user.SetStatus(s, StatusAccountLocked) on the same database session s. Because the login handler always rolls back after a TOTP failure, the StatusAccountLocked write is undone. The in-memory counter correctly increments past 10, so the lockout code executes on every subsequent attempt, but the database write is rolled back every time. This allows unlimited brute-force attempts against TOTP codes. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.3.0.

INFO

Published Date :

April 10, 2026, 5:17 p.m.

Last Modified :

April 10, 2026, 5:17 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-35597 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 MEDIUM [email protected]
Solution
Update Vikunja to version 2.3.0 or later to fix the TOTP lockout mechanism bug.
  • Update Vikunja to version 2.3.0 or later.
  • Ensure TOTP validation is correctly implemented.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-35597 is associated with the following CWEs:

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-2026-35597 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-35597 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]

    Apr. 10, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Description Vikunja is an open-source self-hosted task management platform. Prior to 2.3.0, the TOTP failed-attempt lockout mechanism is non-functional due to a database transaction handling bug. When a TOTP validation fails, the login handler in pkg/routes/api/v1/login.go calls HandleFailedTOTPAuth and then unconditionally rolls back. HandleFailedTOTPAuth in pkg/user/totp.go uses an in-memory counter (key-value store) to track failed attempts. When the counter reaches 10, it calls user.SetStatus(s, StatusAccountLocked) on the same database session s. Because the login handler always rolls back after a TOTP failure, the StatusAccountLocked write is undone. The in-memory counter correctly increments past 10, so the lockout code executes on every subsequent attempt, but the database write is rolled back every time. This allows unlimited brute-force attempts against TOTP codes. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.3.0.
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
    Added CWE CWE-307
    Added Reference https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/commit/6ca0151d02fa0e8c7e2181ab916a28e08caaaec8
    Added Reference https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/pull/2576
    Added Reference https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/releases/tag/v2.3.0
    Added Reference https://github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja/security/advisories/GHSA-fgfv-pv97-6cmj
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.