Waline login accepts non-string email as match-all query
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Security bypass
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · None
- Fix status
- No fix listed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-287.
Summary
Waline prior to 1.41.1 is affected. The login endpoint passes an unchecked email field into a MongoDB query, and a non-string value such as a JSON object is silently dropped, so the filter matches all users (CWE-943). The password is then checked against the first registered user, normally the site administrator, so a remote unauthenticated attacker who knows that account's password can log in without its email address.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02
Description from the CNA
Waline is a comment system with backend support. Prior to version 1.41.1, the login endpoint POST /api/token reads the email field from the request body without checking its type and passes it straight into the MongoDB storage query. When email is not a string (for example a JSON object such as {"$ne": null}), the MongoDB storage adapter's parseWhere silently DROPS the field rather than rejecting the request, producing an empty filter that matches ALL users. The endpoint then verifies the submitted password against the FIRST user returned (user[0]), which in Waline is the first-registered user — the site administrator. This is a PARTIAL authentication bypass, not a full one. The attacker still needs a valid password for that first user; this is not a zero-knowledge bypass and it does not disclose passwords. Its concrete effects are: (1) the email/identifier factor is removed for the administrator account, (2) user enumeration (a non-string email never fails the "no such user" branch), and (3) credential-stuffing amplification — an attacker can test a leaked or weak password against the administrator account without knowing the administrator's email. This issue has been patched in version 1.41.1.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
Upgrade Waline to version 1.41.1, which fixes this issue.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02
Timeline
- 2026-10-28 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-55369
- 2026-10-28 Alias added: GHSA-vvx2-3p2j-gx4m
- 2026-10-30 Priority changed: MEDIUM → LOW
- 2026-11-02 CISA SSVC decision points changed
- 2026-11-02 Priority changed: LOW → HIGH
References
Sources
- CVE-2026-55369 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-55369 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-vvx2-3p2j-gx4m · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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