CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2026-35597 — Vikunja is an open-source self-hosted task management platform

High CVSS 7.5

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.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2026-04-10
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-307

Affected products

  • vikunja / vikunja

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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