CVE-2021-41171

eLabFTW is an open source electronic lab notebook manager for research teams. In versions of eLabFTW before 4.1.0, it allows attackers to bypass a brute-force protection mechanism by using many different forged PHPSESSID values in HTTP Cookie header. This issue has been addressed by implementing brute force login protection, as recommended by Owasp with Device Cookies. This mechanism will not impact users and will effectively thwart any brute-force attempts at guessing passwords. The only correct way to address this is to upgrade to version 4.1.0. Adding rate limitation upstream of the eLabFTW service is of course a valid option, with or without upgrading.

• CWE-307

• https://github.com/elabftw/elabftw/commit/8e92afeec4c3a68dc88333881b7e6307f425706bPatch, Third Party Advisory
• https://github.com/elabftw/elabftw/releases/tag/4.1.0Release Notes, Third Party Advisory
• https://github.com/elabftw/elabftw/security/advisories/GHSA-q67h-5pc3-g6jvThird Party Advisory
• https://owasp.org/www-community/Slow_Down_Online_Guessing_Attacks_with_Device_CookiesThird Party Advisory
• https://www.exploit-db.com/docs/50436Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
• https://github.com/elabftw/elabftw/commit/8e92afeec4c3a68dc88333881b7e6307f425706bPatch, Third Party Advisory
• https://github.com/elabftw/elabftw/releases/tag/4.1.0Release Notes, Third Party Advisory
• https://github.com/elabftw/elabftw/security/advisories/GHSA-q67h-5pc3-g6jvThird Party Advisory
• https://owasp.org/www-community/Slow_Down_Online_Guessing_Attacks_with_Device_CookiesThird Party Advisory
• https://www.exploit-db.com/docs/50436Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry

Published

Oct 22, 2021

Last Modified

Jun 17, 2026

Status

Modified