Privilege escalation from administrator in eLabFTW
eLabFTW is an electronic lab notebook manager for research teams. Prior to version 4.3.0, a vulnerability allows an authenticated user with an administrator role in a team to assign itself system administrator privileges within the application, or create a new system administrator account. The issue has been corrected in eLabFTW version 4.3.0. In the context of eLabFTW, an administrator is a user account with certain privileges to manage users and content in their assigned team/teams. A system administrator account can manage all accounts, teams and edit system-wide settings within the application. The impact is not deemed as high, as it requires the attacker to have access to an administrator account. Regular user accounts cannot exploit this to gain admin rights. A workaround for one if the issues is removing the ability of administrators to create accounts.
- Published
- May 31, 2022
- Updated
- Jun 17, 2026
- EPSS
- 26.9% · 98th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-842
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Report tools
Action score
36
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 28 / 40 · 7.2 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 8 / 30 · 26.9%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 7.2
- CNA · GitHub_M
- 4.9
- 2.3 point gap
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| elabftw | elabftw | cpe:2.3:a:elabftw:elabftw |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- elabftw elabftwbefore 4.3.0
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
elabftw elabftw
- < 4.3.0affected
Same product
elabftw: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2019-12185eLabFTW 1.8.5 is vulnerable to arbitrary file uploads via the /app/controllers/EntityController.php component.40Plan
- CVE-2021-43834Incorrect Authentication in elabftw39Monitor
- CVE-2021-41171Bypass bruteforce protection on login form in elabftw36Monitor
- CVE-2025-25206Incorrect input validation could allow an authenticated user to read sensitive information35Monitor
- CVE-2024-25632Unauthorised granting of administrator privileges over arbitrary teams under certain circumstances35Monitor
- CVE-2021-43833Account takeover in eLabFTW35Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.
Exploit status
Proof of concept available
A public proof of concept or detection signature exists. Exploit knowledge is out there; don't delay patching.
Evidence
- Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub ×1
Noroxi does not host or link to exploit code. Metasploit module names and Nuclei template ids are shown (names, not code); Exploit-DB entries and PoC repositories are given as counts only.
| Source | Kind | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub | stars:2 | 2022-12-01 |
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
- Published
- First PoC+183 d
- TodaySep 30, 2026+1583 d
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
- Administrator privileges are required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- high · data or configuration can be modified
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- High
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-842 · Placement of User into Incorrect GroupCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.
References
- github.com/elabftw/elabftw/releases/tag/4.3.0
- github.com/elabftw/elabftw/security/advisories/GHSA-937c-m7p3-775v
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.