Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
HotCRP sites running affected commits could let any author with at least one submission download documents tied to other submissions. This is a confidentiality issue for papers, PDFs, and attachments. It requires a logged-in author account, but no user interaction. No active exploitation is indicated in the provided sources.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation for active conference sites, especially those handling unpublished research or confidential attachments. The issue does not indicate server compromise, but unauthorized access to submissions could create confidentiality, reputational, and participant-trust impacts.
Technical view
CVE-2026-23878 is a CWE-201 exposure issue in HotCRP’s document API. Affected versions are from commit aa20ef288828b04550950cf67c831af8a525f508 up to, but not including, ceacd5f1476458792c44c6a993670f02c984b4a0. CVSS 3.1 is 6.5: network-accessible, low complexity, low privileges, high confidentiality impact, no integrity or availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to HotCRP deployments running the affected commit range. The attacker must be an authenticated author with at least one submission on the same site. Conferences or review workflows handling sensitive, unpublished, or embargoed submissions have higher business impact.
Exploitation context
The sources describe unauthorized document downloads through the document API by eligible authors. They do not cite public exploitation, inclusion in CISA KEV, or exploit tooling. Treat this as a sensitive data exposure risk rather than a system takeover vulnerability.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE data and GitHub references. The vulnerable window is commit-based, so validation may require repository or deployment metadata rather than package version checks. Avoid assuming broader HotCRP versions beyond the stated commit range.
Mitigation direction
- Update HotCRP to include commit ceacd5f1476458792c44c6a993670f02c984b4a0 or later.
- Review the GitHub security advisory for vendor-specific guidance.
- Restrict author access if immediate updating is not possible.
- Assess whether confidential submission documents may have been exposed.
Validation and detection
- Identify the deployed HotCRP commit or version lineage.
- Confirm it is not within the affected commit range.
- Review access logs for unusual document API downloads by author accounts.
- Verify the patched commit is present after remediation.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-201: Information exposure and cloud metadata lookup
Information exposure and SSRF weaknesses can make discovery, cloud metadata, and credential material review relevant. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2026-23878 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N2.83.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.5MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/kohler/hotcrp/security/advisories/GHSA-vh3x-xwj4-jvqxCVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/kohler/hotcrp/commit/aa20ef288828b04550950cf67c831af8a525f508CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/kohler/hotcrp/commit/ceacd5f1476458792c44c6a993670f02c984b4a0CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data
Insertion of Sensitive Information Into Sent Data represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.