SecureDrop: API session token reuse against the Journalist Interface web UI

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2026-50000
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-10-30 17:17:25 UTC
Updated2026-10-30 19:37:07 UTC
DescriptionSecureDrop is an open-source whistleblower submission system that media organizations can use to securely accept documents from, and communicate with anonymous sources. From 2.5.0 until 2.16.0, the `Journalist Interface` can accept an `API session` token against the `web UI` because its `SessionInterface` keeps a mutable session key prefix that changes with each request and persists across requests. API and web sessions were separated in `Redis` starting in version 2.5.0, but prefix corruption confuses those session namespaces. An attacker who already has access to the secret `Journalist Interface` onion address, the required authentication access and a recent nonexpired `API session` token can reuse that token against the `web UI` until its natural expiry, at most eight hours. The corrupted prefix can also prevent logout from deleting the correct `Redis` session, although normal expiry still applies. A compromised journalist can access encrypted submissions and perform broad actions on source submissions, but this issue does not expose plaintext submissions or affect the running system's availability. This issue is fixed in version 2.16.0.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5 MEDIUM from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.003590000 probability, percentile 0.296910000 (date 2026-11-02)

Problem Types: CWE-863 | CWE-863 CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary5MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N
3.1CNADECLARED5MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:N

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
High
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
High
Availability
None

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Freedomofpress Securedrop affected >= 2.5.0, < 2.16.0 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/freedomofpress/securedrop/releases/tag/2.16.0 [email protected] github.com
github.com/freedomofpress/securedrop/security/advisories/GHSA-78xq-8jf3-... [email protected] github.com
github.com/freedomofpress/securedrop/commit/cbe60cd68b67f44ffdd44c364c71... [email protected] github.com
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