A vulnerability in MISP's email-based one-time password (OTP) authentication flow allowed an attacker to perform an unrestricted number of OTP verification attempts.
The email_otp() endpoint did not apply brute-force protection when validating submitted OTP values. An attacker who had reached the OTP verification stage, for example after successfully providing a user's primary authentication credentials, could repeatedly submit candidate OTP values while the same OTP remained valid. This significantly increased the feasibility of guessing the OTP and bypassing the additional authentication factor, potentially resulting in unauthorized access to the affected user's account.
The issue was exacerbated by the fact that the OTP is associated with the user rather than with an individual pending login session, allowing multiple concurrent sessions to attempt guesses against the same valid OTP.
The patch integrates the existing MISP brute-force protection mechanism into the email OTP flow. Failed OTP attempts are now counted against the user, further attempts are rejected once the configured threshold is reached, and the active OTP is invalidated when the attempt budget is exhausted. Blocklisted users are also prevented from requesting the generation of a fresh OTP. In addition, OTP comparison now uses hash_equals() and validates that the submitted value is a string.
Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
References
| Link | Providers |
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| https://github.com/MISP/MISP/commit/8658062ea |
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History
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:45:00 +0000
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| First Time appeared |
Misp
Misp misp |
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| Vendors & Products |
Misp
Misp misp |
Thu, 03 Sep 2026 15:45:00 +0000
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| Description | A vulnerability in MISP's email-based one-time password (OTP) authentication flow allowed an attacker to perform an unrestricted number of OTP verification attempts. The email_otp() endpoint did not apply brute-force protection when validating submitted OTP values. An attacker who had reached the OTP verification stage, for example after successfully providing a user's primary authentication credentials, could repeatedly submit candidate OTP values while the same OTP remained valid. This significantly increased the feasibility of guessing the OTP and bypassing the additional authentication factor, potentially resulting in unauthorized access to the affected user's account. The issue was exacerbated by the fact that the OTP is associated with the user rather than with an individual pending login session, allowing multiple concurrent sessions to attempt guesses against the same valid OTP. The patch integrates the existing MISP brute-force protection mechanism into the email OTP flow. Failed OTP attempts are now counted against the user, further attempts are rejected once the configured threshold is reached, and the active OTP is invalidated when the attempt budget is exhausted. Blocklisted users are also prevented from requesting the generation of a fresh OTP. In addition, OTP comparison now uses hash_equals() and validates that the submitted value is a string. | |
| Title | Missing Rate Limiting in Email OTP Verification Allows Brute-Force Authentication Bypass | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-307 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV4_0
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: CIRCL
Published:
Updated: 2026-09-03T15:42:23.759Z
Reserved: 2026-09-03T15:22:56.827Z
Link: CVE-2026-85237
No data.
Status : Undergoing Analysis
Published: 2026-09-03T16:18:27.163
Modified: 2026-09-03T16:45:08.223
Link: CVE-2026-85237
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-09-03T16:45:06Z