CVE-2026-78655

Punk::Plugin::TOTP versions before 0.05 for Perl allow the second-factor attempt limit to be reset by replaying an earlier session cookie because the challenge route counts failures in the session

State
Published
Severity
9.1 Critical
Published
Aug 25, 2026
Updated
Aug 26, 2026
Reserved
Aug 24, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

Punk::Plugin::TOTP versions before 0.05 for Perl allow the second-factor attempt limit to be reset by replaying an earlier session cookie because the challenge route counts failures in the session.

The POST handler on challenge_path keeps the failure count as tries inside the totp_pending record in the session, raising it on each rejected code and deleting the pending record once it reaches attempts, five by default. Punk::Session carries the session in a signed cookie unless the application declares a store, and keeps no server-side record, so an earlier value of the same session stays valid until the expiry stamped inside it. A client that saves the cookie before its failed attempts and presents it again gets the pending record back with its counter, and the limit never fires. The replayed record is accepted while its own expiry, pending_ttl seconds from the challenge and 300 by default, has not passed.

Sessions declared with a store are not affected: the pending record and its counter then live server-side.

The attempt limit does not bound guessing of the second factor, which is left to the per-address rate limit the plugin registers on the same path, 30 requests per 60 seconds.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.19.1 CriticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:NCISA-ADP

Weaknesses

  • CWE-307 Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts
  • CWE-642 External Control of Critical State Data

Affected Products

ProductVersions
Punk-TOTP
  • before 0.05Affected

References

Every record here comes from the CVE Program’s CVE List. © 1999–2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. The records are reproduced under the CVE Program terms of use.