CVE-2026-24964 in Contest Gallery Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 03/25/2026
Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in Wasiliy Strecker / ContestGallery developer Contest Gallery contest-gallery allows Server Side Request Forgery.This issue affects Contest Gallery: from n/a through <= 28.1.2.1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/31/2026
The Server-Side Request Forgery vulnerability identified as CVE-2026-24964 represents a critical security flaw in the Contest Gallery application developed by Wasiliy Strecker. This vulnerability falls under the Common Weakness Enumeration category CWE-918, which specifically addresses Server-Side Request Forgery attacks where malicious actors can manipulate the application to make unintended requests to internal or external systems. The vulnerability exists within the Contest Gallery software version range from an unspecified starting point through version 28.1.2.1, indicating that all versions within this range are potentially compromised and susceptible to exploitation by threat actors.
The technical implementation of this SSRF flaw allows attackers to manipulate the application's request handling mechanisms to make unauthorized HTTP requests to arbitrary destinations. When the application processes user-supplied input through parameters that control request destinations, it fails to properly validate or sanitize these inputs before forwarding them to backend services. This creates an attack surface where malicious actors can potentially access internal network resources, bypass firewall restrictions, or target other systems within the organization's infrastructure. The vulnerability enables attackers to perform reconnaissance activities, access sensitive internal services, or even escalate their attack to compromise additional systems within the network perimeter.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations deploying the Contest Gallery application. Attackers who successfully exploit this SSRF vulnerability can potentially gain unauthorized access to internal systems, databases, or services that would normally be protected by network segmentation. The attack surface extends beyond simple information disclosure to include potential privilege escalation, data exfiltration, and further lateral movement within the compromised environment. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1071.004 for Application Layer Protocol: DNS, as attackers may use the SSRF capability to perform DNS tunneling or other protocol-based attacks against internal systems. Organizations using this application face the risk of unauthorized system access, data breaches, and potential compliance violations due to the exposure of internal network resources.
The recommended mitigations for this vulnerability include immediate patching of the Contest Gallery application to version 28.1.2.2 or later, which should contain the necessary security fixes to prevent unauthorized request forwarding. Organizations should implement strict input validation and sanitization measures to ensure that all user-supplied parameters are properly validated before being processed. Network-level protections such as firewall rules and proxy configurations should be implemented to restrict outbound connections from the application server. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive security assessments of their deployed applications to identify similar vulnerabilities and implement proper access controls and monitoring mechanisms to detect anomalous request patterns. The implementation of a web application firewall and regular security scanning should also be considered as part of the overall remediation strategy to prevent exploitation attempts.