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VikunjaApplication

CVE-2026-28268

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.1.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Vikunja is an open-source self-hosted task management platform. Versions prior to 2.1.0 have a business logic vulnerability exists in the password reset mechanism of vikunja/api that allows password reset tokens to be reused indefinitely. Due to a failure to invalidate tokens upon use and a critical logic bug in the token cleanup cron job, reset tokens remain valid forever. This allows an attacker who intercepts a single reset token (via logs, browser history, or phishing) to perform a complete, persistent account takeover at any point in the future, bypassing standard authentication controls. Version 2.1.0 contains a patch for the issue.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Vikunja versions before 2.1.0 contain a business logic flaw in the password reset mechanism where reset tokens are never invalidated after use and a logic bug in the token cleanup cron job prevents proper expiration. This allows any intercepted token to remain valid indefinitely, enabling persistent account takeover.

MitigationUpgrade to Vikunja version 2.1.0 or later to obtain the patch that fixes token invalidation and the cron job logic bug.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
VikunjaApplication
Affected:< 2.1.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine installed Vikunja version
    Run 'vikunja version' from the command line, check the admin dashboard version display, or inspect the container/binary version metadata
    Affected if Version shown is below 2.1.0 (e.g., 2.0.9, 2.0.0, 1.x.x)
  2. Locate the Vikunja configuration file
    Find the config.yml or config.yaml file used by your deployment, typically in /etc/vikunja/, the application root directory, or the mounted config volume
    Affected if Config file exists and the instance is running a version below 2.1.0
  3. Inspect the database for reset tokens
    Connect to the Vikunja database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQLite depending on your setup) and query the users table or token table for password_reset_token or similar fields. Check if any tokens have created_at timestamps far in the past that should have expired
    Affected if Database contains password reset tokens with old created_at dates that remain valid (unexpired) in a pre-2.1.0 installation
  4. Verify cron job execution status
    Check Vikunja application logs or system cron logs for entries related to 'cleanup', 'token', or 'cron' jobs. Look for successful execution of the token cleanup task
    Affected if Logs show no recent token cleanup runs, or the cleanup cron job has failed to run since before the upgrade to 2.1.0
  5. Review active password reset tokens
    Query the database for any rows in the user table or a tokens table where the password_reset_token field is not null or empty
    Affected if Any non-null password reset tokens exist in the database for a pre-2.1.0 installation, as these tokens should have been invalidated but remain usable

You are affected if your Vikunja installation version is below 2.1.0 and the database contains password reset tokens that have not been cleaned up or invalidated.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.1.0 or later
Fixed in 2.1.0
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Vikunja version 2.1.0 or later to obtain the patch that fixes token invalidation and the cron job logic bug.

Recommended fix High confidence

2.1.0

  1. Upgrade Vikunja to version 2.1.0 or later to apply the patch that fixes the password reset token reuse vulnerability
  2. After upgrading, invalidate all existing password reset tokens by clearing the tokens table in the database as a precautionary measure
  3. Review server logs and authentication logs for any suspicious or unauthorized password reset attempts that may have occurred prior to the upgrade
  4. If any unauthorized access is detected, force password resets for affected users and consider rotating all user passwords as a precaution
  5. Monitor for any unusual account activity post-upgrade
Caveat Review release notes for version 2.1.0 to check for any breaking changes or migration requirements before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Vikunja Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-28268 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data