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CVE-2026-77337 – Authentication Bypass / Resource Exhaustion – CakePHP Authentication plugin (< 2.11

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Summary

CVE-2026-77337 affects the CakePHP Authentication plugin (used standalone or with PSR-7 based applications). When the CookieAuthenticator component relies on unencrypted, forgeable legacy tokens, an attacker can bypass authentication and impersonate a legitimate user, and can also trigger CPU/memory exhaustion by submitting crafted tokens for validation. The issue is rated CRITICAL (CVSS 9.1).

Technical details

  • Root cause: CookieAuthenticator supports a legacy cookie token format that is not encrypted, allowing tokens to be forged without knowledge of any server-side secret.
  • Trigger condition: The application must have CookieAuthenticator enabled and configured to accept legacy (unencrypted) tokens rather than the newer encrypted cookie format.
  • Attack vector: Network — remote, unauthenticated attacker crafts a cookie value and submits it to the target application; no user interaction or prior privileges are required.
  • Impact: Authentication bypass (impersonation of arbitrary users) via forged tokens (CWE-290), and denial of service through uncontrolled resource consumption when the server processes maliciously crafted tokens (CWE-770).

Affected software

  • cakephp/authentication versions prior to 2.11.2
  • cakephp/authentication versions 3.0.0 through 3.3.6
  • cakephp/authentication versions 4.0.0 through 4.2.0

Severity

  • CVSS v4.0 Base Score: 9.1 (Critical)
  • Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Upgrade cakephp/authentication to version 2.11.2, 3.3.7, or 4.2.1, which introduce an encrypted cookie format.
  • If patching is delayed: Enable the EncryptedCookieMiddleware for the authentication cookie name to protect tokens in transit and at rest, and disable acceptance of legacy unencrypted tokens (legacyTokens = false) where supported.

References

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