CVE-2023-38492

Kirby vulnerable to denial of service from unlimited password lengths

Description

Kirby is a content management system. A vulnerability in versions prior to 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, and 3.9.6 affects all Kirby sites with user accounts (unless Kirby's API and Panel are disabled in the config). The real-world impact of this vulnerability is limited, however we still recommend to update to one of the patch releases because they also fix more severe vulnerabilities. Kirby's authentication endpoint did not limit the password length. This allowed attackers to provide a password with a length up to the server's maximum request body length. Validating that password against the user's actual password requires hashing the provided password, which requires more CPU and memory resources (and therefore processing time) the longer the provided password gets. This could be abused by an attacker to cause the website to become unresponsive or unavailable. Because Kirby comes with a built-in brute force protection, the impact of this vulnerability is limited to 10 failed logins from each IP address and 10 failed logins for each existing user per hour. The problem has been patched in Kirby 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, and 3.9.6. In all of the mentioned releases, the maintainers have added password length limits in the affected code so that passwords longer than 1000 bytes are immediately blocked, both when setting a password and when logging in.

Category

5.3
CVSS
Severity: Medium
CVSS 3.1 •
EPSS 0.10%
Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory github.com
Affected: getkirby kirby
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2023-38492?
CVE-2023-38492 has been scored as a medium severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2023-38492?
To fix CVE-2023-38492, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2023-38492 being actively exploited in the wild?
As for now, there are no information to confirm that CVE-2023-38492 is being actively exploited. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2023-38492?
CVE-2023-38492 affects getkirby kirby.
This platform uses data from the NIST NVD, MITRE CVE, MITRE CWE, First.org and CISA KEV but is not endorsed or certified by these entities. CVE is a registred trademark of the MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CVE content is MITRE's CVE web site. CWE is a registred trademark of the MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CWE content is MITRE's CWE web site.
© 2025 Under My Watch. All Rights Reserved.