CVE-2026-51876 in DeepTutor
Summary
by MITRE • 10/02/2026
DeepTutor 1.4.0 contains an authorization bypass vulnerability in the book confirmation flow. An unauthenticated or unauthorized caller can reuse a publicly exposed book_id to submit a confirm-proposal request for an existing book, causing unauthorized overwrites of persisted metadata and spine content.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/02/2026
The identified security flaw within DeepTutor version 1.4.0 represents a critical failure in access control mechanisms specifically located within the application's book confirmation workflow. This vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user permissions when processing requests to confirm proposals for existing books. The core technical issue is an authorization bypass that allows any actor, whether unauthenticated or possessing only minimal privileges, to interact with sensitive administrative functions intended exclusively for authorized administrators or content managers. By exploiting this gap in the security architecture, an attacker can manipulate the state of digital assets without proper credentials, effectively circumventing the application's role-based access control policies.
From a technical perspective, the vulnerability is triggered by the reuse of publicly exposed book identifiers. The system fails to verify that the requesting user has legitimate ownership or administrative rights over the specific resource identified by the provided book_id. Consequently, an external party can submit a confirm-proposal request targeting any existing book in the database. This action forces the application to overwrite persisted metadata and spine content associated with that identifier. The lack of server-side authorization checks means that the integrity of the data is compromised not through injection or buffer overflow techniques, but through logical manipulation of valid API endpoints due to missing permission assertions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe, as it directly affects the integrity and availability of digital library content. Unauthorized overwrites can lead to the corruption of metadata such as titles, authors, descriptions, and publication dates, rendering books unsearchable or misattributed within the platform. Furthermore, modifications to spine content may disrupt navigation structures or display logic for end-users. In a broader context, this could facilitate defacement campaigns where malicious actors replace legitimate educational materials with inappropriate or harmful content. The ability to alter persisted data without detection undermines trust in the system's reliability and exposes the organization to potential regulatory scrutiny regarding data integrity standards.
This vulnerability aligns closely with Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) category CWE-284, which describes Improper Access Control, specifically reflecting scenarios where access control decisions are not enforced before granting user requests. Additionally, it maps to MITRE ATT&CK technique T1078, Valid Accounts, as the attacker leverages valid system structures but lacks proper authorization, and potentially T1562, Impair Defenses, if the overwrites obscure legitimate content or audit trails. To mitigate this risk, developers must implement strict server-side authorization checks on all endpoints involved in the book confirmation flow. This includes verifying that the authenticated user has explicit permission to modify the specific resource identified by the request parameters. Implementing robust input validation and ensuring that business logic enforces role-based access controls will prevent unauthorized actors from exploiting publicly exposed identifiers for malicious purposes.