CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-27576 — An issue was discovered in phpList before 3.6.14

Medium CVSS 6.7

An issue was discovered in phpList before 3.6.14. Due to an access error, it was possible to manipulate and edit data of the system's super admin, allowing one to perform an account takeover of the user with super-admin permission. Specifically, for a request with updatepassword=1, a modified request (manipulating both the ID parameter and the associated username) can bypass the intended email confirmation requirement. For example, the attacker can start from an updatepassword=1 request with their own ID number, and change the ID number to 1 (representing the super admin account) and change the username to admin2. In the first step, the attacker changes the super admin's email address to one under the attacker's control. In the second step, the attacker performs a password reset for the super admin account. The new password allows login as the super admin, i.e., a successful account takeover.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.7 (3.1)
Published
2023-08-18
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-639

Affected products

  • phplist / phplist / 3.6.12

Matched remediation archetype

Authorization bypass, IDOR, and cross-tenant access

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map object and action authorization checks across API, UI, batch, import/export, and background-job paths.
  • Identify tenant, ownership, role, and policy boundaries for affected resources and administrative operations.
  • Use synthetic fixtures to compare intended access matrices without accessing another user's real data.

Remediate safely

  • Enforce server-side authorization at each resource access and state transition using the authenticated principal and trusted tenant context.
  • Scope data queries by tenant and ownership; treat client-supplied identifiers, roles, and policy claims as untrusted.
  • Add deny-by-default policy tests for horizontal and vertical access across every affected transport.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.