CVE-2023-51339
📋 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. All users of PHPJabbers Event Ticketing System v1.0 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- PHPJabbers Event Ticketing System
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete email system disruption for targeted users/organizations, potential email account lockouts, and reputational damage from spam-like activity.
Likely Case
Temporary email service disruption for targeted users, increased email server load, and user frustration from spam password reset emails.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper rate limiting and email monitoring in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Simple HTTP POST requests to the forgot password endpoint can trigger unlimited emails. No authentication required.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Unknown
Vendor Advisory: No official advisory found
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Check vendor website for updates 2. Apply any available patches 3. Test functionality after patching
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Rate Limiting
linuxAdd rate limiting to the forgot password endpoint using web server or application-level controls
# Example Apache mod_evasive config
DOSHashTableSize 3097
DOSPageCount 2
DOSSiteCount 50
DOSPageInterval 1
DOSSiteInterval 1
DOSBlockingPeriod 10
Web Application Firewall Rules
allConfigure WAF to limit requests to forgot password endpoint
# Example ModSecurity rule
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains forgot-password.php" \
"id:1001,phase:2,deny,status:429,msg:'Rate limit exceeded for password reset'" \
"chain"
SecRule &IP:FORGOT_PASSWORD "@gt 5" \
"setvar:ip.forgot_password_count=+1,expirevar:ip.forgot_password_count=60"
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement network-level rate limiting at firewall/load balancer
- Monitor email server logs for abnormal password reset activity
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Test by sending multiple consecutive POST requests to the forgot password endpoint (typically /forgot-password.php) and check if emails continue to be sent without delayCheck Version:
Check PHPJabbers Event Ticketing System version in admin panel or readme filesVerify Fix Applied:
After implementing controls, test that multiple rapid password reset requests are blocked or delayed📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple failed login attempts from same IP
- Abnormal volume of password reset emails in mail server logs
- High frequency POST requests to forgot-password.php
Network Indicators:
- Bursts of HTTP POST requests to forgot password endpoint
- 429 status codes if rate limiting is implemented
SIEM Query:
source="web_server" AND uri="*forgot-password.php" AND count by src_ip > 5 within 1m