CVE-2026-38474 in GazellePW
Summary
by MITRE • 08/25/2026
GazellePW (GazellePosterWall) commit 86c4bedf727691b5a97af42a4864869d18446449 suffers from a Broken access control vulnerability in the IP lock manager, which allows remote authenticated users to add, modify, or delete IP lock entries for arbitrary accounts via tools.php?action=iplock.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/26/2026
The identified vulnerability represents a critical failure in server-side authorization logic within the GazellePW application, specifically targeting the IP lock management subsystem. This flaw is classified under CWE-284 Improper Access Control and aligns with MITRE ATT&CK technique T1078 Valid Accounts, as it requires an authenticated user to exploit but allows that user to escalate privileges or impact other users' accounts without proper verification of ownership. The core technical issue resides in the endpoint tools.php when invoked with the action parameter set to iplock. In a secure implementation, any operation modifying access control lists for specific entities must verify that the requesting actor possesses administrative rights over those specific entities. However, this application fails to enforce such checks, allowing an authenticated user to supply arbitrary account identifiers as input parameters and successfully execute add, modify, or delete operations on IP lock entries belonging to other users.
From a technical perspective, the vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of the target resource identifier against the session context of the current user. When a request is made to tools.php?action=iplock, the backend processes the provided account details and updates the database records for IP restrictions without confirming that the authenticated user owns those accounts or holds global administrative privileges necessary to manage them. This lack of object-level access control means that any valid credential holder can manipulate the security posture of other users by locking their IPs out or removing existing locks, effectively bypassing intended isolation boundaries between different user sessions and data sets.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant for both individual users and platform administrators. For regular users, an attacker could lock legitimate accounts from accessing the service by adding malicious IP restrictions to those accounts, resulting in a denial-of-service condition for specific individuals. Conversely, removing existing IP locks could expose user accounts to brute-force attacks or unauthorized access if they were previously protected by geographic or network-based constraints. Furthermore, this capability undermines the integrity of administrative tools intended for managing platform security, as it allows non-administrative users to interfere with account management workflows that should be restricted exclusively to privileged personnel.
Mitigation strategies must focus on implementing strict object-level authorization checks within the application logic. Developers should ensure that any request modifying IP lock entries verifies that the authenticated user is either the owner of the target account or possesses a role explicitly granted permission to manage such settings for other users. Additionally, employing principle of least privilege by restricting access to tools.php?action=iplock solely to administrators would eliminate this attack vector entirely. Input validation should also be reinforced to ensure that only expected data types and formats are processed, although primary remediation must address the authorization flaw rather than relying on input sanitization alone. Regular security audits focusing on broken object level permissions will help prevent similar issues in other parts of the application architecture.