CVE-2022-36076

NodeBB account takeover via SSO plugins

This is a historical security advisory, pertaining to a vulnerability that was reported, patched, and published in 2021. It is listed here for completeness and for CVE tracking purposes.

Workarounds

Site maintainers can cherry-pick https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/commit/a2400f6baff44cb2996487bcd0cc6e2acc74b3d4 into their codebase to patch the exploit.

References

• https://blogs.opera.com/security/2022/03/bug-bounty-adventures-a-nodebb-0-day/

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Discuss it on our community forum
• Email us at [email protected]

Due to an unnecessarily strict conditional in the code handling the first step of the SSO process, the pre-existing logic that added (and later checked) a nonce was inadvertently rendered opt-in instead of opt-out.

This re-exposed a vulnerability in that a specially crafted MITM attack could theoretically take over another user account during the single sign-on process.

A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones. Typical impact: state-changing actions performed as the victim without their consent.

CVE-2022-36076 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (1.17.2); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

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The issue has been fully patched as of v1.17.2.

The patch commit can be found at https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/commit/a2400f6baff44cb2996487bcd0cc6e2acc74b3d4

1. What is CVE-2022-36076? CVE-2022-36076 is a high-severity cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in nodebb (npm), affecting versions <= 1.17.1. It is fixed in 1.17.2. A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones.
2. How severe is CVE-2022-36076? CVE-2022-36076 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of nodebb are affected by CVE-2022-36076? nodebb (npm) versions <= 1.17.1 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2022-36076? Yes. CVE-2022-36076 is fixed in 1.17.2. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2022-36076 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-36076 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2022-36076 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2022-36076? Upgrade nodebb to 1.17.2 or later.

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