Summary
Homer: Hardcoded Default Admin Password 'sipcapture' With No Forced Change on First Login
On every fresh Homer deployment using internal authentication, the bootstrap process automatically creates an admin account with the password sipcapture (stored as a legacy SHA-256 hex hash). There is no first-login forced-change mechanism. Any attacker who reaches the login endpoint immediately gains full administrative access.
Details
config/config.go lines 858-861:
// DefaultInternalAuthPasswordHash is the SHA-256 hex digest of the default
// bootstrap password (cleartext: sipcapture).
const DefaultInternalAuthPasswordHash = "883ffc1f37fd0fe542b0fb9740035c4383e7d976c411161d24e62edace280f90"
coordinator/services/auth_bootstrap.go lines 20-71: EnsureBootstrapAdminUser() runs at startup. If no admin user exists, it inserts a row with username=admin, password_hash=DefaultInternalAuthPasswordHash. No force_change, no first_login flag, no expiry is set.
coordinator/services/auth_bootstrap_test.go line 114 confirms the plaintext:
u, err := svc.Authenticate(ctx, "admin", "sipcapture")
passwordhash/password.go lines 36-45: Legacy SHA-256 hex hashes are accepted via legacySHA256HexEqual, so the default credential is functional on any deployment.
PoC
# Authenticate with default credentials, works on any fresh Homer deployment
curl -s -X POST http://<homer-host>/api/v3/auth \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"username":"admin","password":"sipcapture"}'
# Response: {"token":"<admin-jwt>","data":{"userGroup":"admin"}}
# Use the token to access all admin functionality
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-jwt>" http://<homer-host>/api/v3/users
Impact
Use of Hard-coded Credentials (CWE-798). Any attacker who can reach a freshly deployed Homer instance gains immediate full administrative access using the publicly documented default password, with no lockout, rate limiting, or forced password change required.
Credentials are embedded in source code or a binary, making them accessible to anyone who can read the artifact. Typical impact: unauthorized access using the static credential.
CVE-2026-62252 has a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. 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 (0.0.0-20260625091610-b2e942031ff8); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
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. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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See it in your environmentNew to Kodem? Get a demo →Remediation advice
Remove the hardcoded DefaultInternalAuthPasswordHash constant. Require operators to provide a hashed admin password in the configuration file. Alternatively, generate a random password on first startup, print it to stdout once, and immediately force a change on first login.
If possible, please apply for a CVE number when posting.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2026-62252? CVE-2026-62252 is a critical-severity use of hard-coded credentials vulnerability in github.com/sipcapture/homer-app (go), affecting versions < 0.0.0-20260625091610-b2e942031ff8. It is fixed in 0.0.0-20260625091610-b2e942031ff8. Credentials are embedded in source code or a binary, making them accessible to anyone who can read the artifact.
- How severe is CVE-2026-62252? CVE-2026-62252 has a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical). 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.
- Which versions of github.com/sipcapture/homer-app are affected by CVE-2026-62252? github.com/sipcapture/homer-app (go) versions < 0.0.0-20260625091610-b2e942031ff8 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-62252? Yes. CVE-2026-62252 is fixed in 0.0.0-20260625091610-b2e942031ff8. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2026-62252 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-62252 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
- What actually determines whether CVE-2026-62252 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.
- How do I fix CVE-2026-62252? Upgrade
github.com/sipcapture/homer-appto 0.0.0-20260625091610-b2e942031ff8 or later.