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Cotonti CVE-2026-93868

| EUVDEUVD-2026-83365 CRITICAL
Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) (CWE-338)
2026-09-18 VulnCheck GHSA-rw92-cwm5-wp25
9.2
CVSS 4.0 · Vendor: VulnCheck
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Severity by source

Vendor (VulnCheck) PRIMARY
9.2 CRITICAL
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
vuln.today AI
8.1 HIGH

Unauthenticated network attack (PR:N/UI:N) but success requires winning a timing race and brute-probing a large token space, so AC:H; admin account takeover yields full C:H/I:H/A:H.

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).

CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
X

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
Sep 18, 2026 - 20:33 vuln.today
CVE Published
Sep 18, 2026 - 19:56 cve.org
CRITICAL 9.2

DescriptionCVE.org

Cotonti through 1.0.0 derives password recovery validation tokens from md5(microtime()) in users.passrecover.php, creating a predictable token space of approximately one million values per second. Unauthenticated attackers can read the server Date header, precompute candidate tokens within a narrow time window, and probe them against the passrecover authentication endpoint to reset any account password including administrators.

AnalysisAI

Unauthenticated attackers can reset the password of any Cotonti account, including administrator accounts, because password-recovery validation tokens in Cotonti through 1.0.0 are derived from md5(microtime()) rather than a cryptographically secure random source, leaving roughly one million predictable candidate values per second. Exploitation requires the attacker to trigger the recovery flow for a target account, read the server's Date header to bootstrap the microtime() timing window, then precompute and probe candidate tokens against the passrecover endpoint before the seed drifts - a timing-constrained but fully unauthenticated attack (assessed CVSS 3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N, C:H/I:H/A:H; CVSS 4.0 base 9.2). …

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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata

Access
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Vulnerability AssessmentAI

Exploitation Exploitation requires that the target account's password-recovery flow be invoked (attacker can trigger it for any account, including admin) and that the attacker can read the server's Date header to bootstrap the microtime() timing window. … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment.
Risk Assessment This is a genuine high-priority flaw, not a CVSS-inflation case. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in.
Exploit Scenario Full exploit scenario with step-by-step reproduction available after sign-in.
Remediation Apply the upstream vendor fix, which replaces the predictable token generator in modules/users/inc/users.passrecover.php with $validationKey = bin2hex(random_bytes(32)) (256 bits of CSPRNG output) and corrects the $validationKey/$validationkey case mismatch that could bypass the empty-value check; the fix is delivered via the vendor's upstream pull request (https://github.com/Cotonti/Cotonti/pull/1898) referenced alongside the issue at https://github.com/Cotonti/Cotonti/issues/1890 and the VulnCheck advisory at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cotonti-through-1.0.0-predictable-password-recovery-token-via-weak-prng - patch availability is confirmed per vendor, but a formally tagged patched release was not independently confirmed from the supplied data, so review the PR or advisory for the applicable distribution before relying on a release package, and backport the one-line change if no tag is yet published. … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report.

Recommended ActionAI

Within 24 hours, inventory all Cotonti installations and identify any running version 1.0.0 or earlier; apply the vendor patch for Cotonti, available per vendor advisory, to every affected instance, and if the patch cannot be applied immediately, disable or tightly restrict the password-recovery/passrecover endpoint and enforce aggressive rate limiting, short token lifetimes, and monitoring for reset abuse. …

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CVE-2026-93868 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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