CVE-2023-51323
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows attackers to send excessive password reset emails to legitimate users by exploiting missing rate limiting in the Forgot Password feature. This can lead to denial of service through email flooding. Organizations using PHPJabbers Shared Asset Booking System v1.0 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- PHPJabbers Shared Asset Booking System
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete email system disruption for targeted users, potential email server overload, and service unavailability for legitimate password reset requests.
Likely Case
Targeted users receive hundreds of password reset emails, causing inbox flooding and temporary service disruption for those users.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper rate limiting and email monitoring in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires no authentication and can be performed with simple HTTP requests to the password reset endpoint.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Not specified
Vendor Advisory: Not available
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
No official patch available. Consider upgrading to a newer version if available or implementing workarounds.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Rate Limiting
allAdd rate limiting to the Forgot Password endpoint to restrict requests per IP/user.
Modify PHP code to track requests and implement delays or blocks after threshold
Web Application Firewall Rule
allConfigure WAF to limit requests to the password reset endpoint.
Add rule: Rate limit POST requests to /forgot-password endpoint
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable the Forgot Password feature if not essential
- Implement network-level rate limiting at the firewall or load balancer
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Test by sending multiple password reset requests to the same email address from the same IP within a short timeframe.Check Version:
Check application version in admin panel or configuration files.Verify Fix Applied:
After implementing rate limiting, verify that excessive password reset requests are blocked or delayed.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple failed password reset attempts from same IP
- Unusual spike in password reset email generation
Network Indicators:
- High volume of POST requests to password reset endpoint
- Repeated requests with same parameters
SIEM Query:
source="web_logs" AND (uri_path="/forgot-password" OR uri_path="/password-reset") AND status=200 | stats count by src_ip