PHP2Shell : See if you’re affected with a free external attack surface scan. Click Here > 

Back
New CVE Detected

CVE-2026-93868 – Password Recovery Account Takeover – Cotonti Siena ≤ 1.0.0

Be the first to know when new zero-days emerge:

Subscribe to Email Alerts
Subscribe to RSS Feed

Summary

CVE-2026-93868 is a critical vulnerability in Cotonti Siena’s password recovery mechanism, caused by the use of a predictable token-generation function. Because the validation token is derived from md5(microtime()), an unauthenticated attacker can predict or brute-force valid recovery tokens and take over any account, including administrator accounts. The flaw affects Cotonti Siena versions up to and including 1.0.0 and carries a CVSS score of 9.2 (Critical).

Technical details

  • Root cause: the password recovery routine in modules/users/inc/users.passrecover.php generates the validation token with $validationKey = md5(microtime());. microtime() without the true parameter is a low-entropy, time-based value, so the resulting MD5 hash yields only on the order of one million possible values per second.
  • Trigger conditions: an attacker initiates or observes the password recovery flow for a target account and reads the server’s Date response header to narrow down the timestamp window used to seed the token.
  • Attack vector: network-based, unauthenticated. The attacker precomputes candidate tokens for the observed time window and submits them against the password recovery validation endpoint until a match resets the target account’s password.
  • Impact: full account takeover, including administrator accounts, since the predictable token allows resetting the password of any user without prior credentials.

Affected software

  • Cotonti Siena versions up to and including 1.0.0

Severity

  • CVSS v4.0 Base Score: 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
  • CVSS v3.1 Base Score: 8.1 (High) — CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: apply the fix tracked in the vendor’s pull request (#1898) that replaces the weak token generation with a cryptographically secure random value generator (e.g., PHP’s random_bytes()), and upgrade to a version of Cotonti Siena beyond 1.0.0 once released.
  • If no patch is available: disable or restrict access to the password recovery feature until a fix can be applied, monitor for repeated password-recovery validation attempts from the same source, and consider requiring additional out-of-band verification (e.g., manual admin approval) for account password resets.

References

Are you exposed?

Get a free report of your organization’s exposure to this CVE and threat

  • Mapping of all Assets with this Technology
  • Identification of potentially exposed assets to this CVE
  • Confirmation of verified exploitable assets
Get Exposure Report

How IONIX’s External Exposure Management Platform Detects and Validates
Zero-Days to Shrink MTTR

1

Map your entire attack surface (continously)

IONIX uses multi-factor discovery methods, including DNS analysis, certificate mapping, metadata inspection, and more, to automatically map every internet-facing asset across your environment. This includes cloud instances, third-party platforms, shadow IT, and even forgotten infrastructure that traditional tools miss.

2

Monitor for new CVEs

Dozens of threat intel feeds using agentic technology are continuously analyzed to detect the appearance of proof-of-concept code, exploit kits, and indicators of active targeting. IONIX goes further by applying AI to proactively evaluate whether emerging vulnerabilities are likely to be exploited, even before PoCs go public.

3

Identify Potential External Exposures

Not all CVEs matter. IONIX filters vulnerabilities by asking attacker-centric questions: Can it be reached from the internet? Does it require authentication? Is it being exploited in the wild? This dramatically reduces noise and focuses teams on threats that can actually be weaponized.

4

Create Safe, Scalable Exploit Validations

IONIX transforms real-world PoCs into safe, non-intrusive test payloads that can be run in production environments without disruption. These simulations are precisely targeted to the systems that are vulnerable, ensuring rapid validation without unnecessary load.

5

Execute Exploit Validations

By combining context about software stack, versioning, exposure status, and reachability, IONIX ensures that only the right payloads are executed against the right assets, maximizing efficiency and minimizing risk.

6

Drive Fast and Actionable Remediation

Results are routed through integrations with ticketing, SOAR, and SIEM tools. Issues are written in plain language, bundled into remediation clusters, and prioritized based on asset criticality, exploitability, and blast radius. This shortens mean time to remediation (MTTR) and empowers teams to act with confidence.

Are you exposed?

Get a free report of your organization’s exposure to this CVE and threat

  • Mapping of all Assets with this Technology
  • Identification of potentially exposed assets to this CVE
  • Confirmation of verified exploitable assets
Get Exposure Report
Close

Subscribe to Threat Center RSS

Copy/paste the link below into your preferred RSS reader or follow these instructions to subscribe to Slack alerts.

Open RSS feedSlack setup instructions

Close

Get Real-Time CVE Alerts to Your Email

Be the first to know when new zero-days emerge