CVE-2026-52824

Kimai: Default APP_SECRET in Docker Image Enables Cookie Forgery and Account Takeover

State
Published
Severity
9.1 Critical
Published
Sep 15, 2026
Updated
Sep 16, 2026
Reserved
Jun 8, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

Kimai is an open-source time tracking application. Prior to 2.58.0, the official Docker image sets APP_SECRET to the public value change_this_to_something_unique in Dockerfile, and .docker/entrypoint.sh neither replaces nor rejects that value before Symfony uses it as kernel.secret. An unauthenticated attacker who reaches a deployment that did not override APP_SECRET, knows a username, correctly guesses the account ID associated with that username, and targets an account without active two-factor authentication can forge HMAC-protected authentication artifacts, including KIMAI_REMEMBER cookies and login links, to access the account without its password. The updated entrypoint generates and persists a random secret when no safe operator-provided value exists. This issue is fixed in version 2.58.0.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
4.09.1 CriticalCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NGitHub_M

Weaknesses

  • CWE-1188 Insecure Default Initialization of Resource

Affected Products

ProductVersions
kimaikimai
  • < 2.58.0Affected

References

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