CVE-2026-68933 in Chartbrew
Summary
by MITRE • 11/06/2026
Chartbrew is an open-source web application that can connect directly to databases and APIs and use the data to create charts. Prior to 5.2.3, public dashboard passwords were stored in plaintext, accepted through a URL query parameter, and checked without effective attempt throttling. The vulnerable surface is public password-protected dashboard storage and validation routes. An unauthenticated attacker targets a public password-protected dashboard and repeatedly submits candidate passwords or obtains password-bearing server or proxy logs. Unlimited online guesses enable brute force, while cleartext storage and URL transport expose the secret in application storage and server or proxy access logs. The target must be a public dashboard with password protection enabled. Even failed attempts reveal chart count and configuration without the password; a recovered password grants access to the protected dashboard and its chart data. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.2.3.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/06/2026
Chartbrew, an open-source web application designed for connecting directly to databases and APIs to generate visual charts, suffered from significant security deficiencies in versions prior to 5.2.3 regarding the handling of password-protected public dashboards. The core technical flaw involved the storage and transmission of dashboard passwords in plaintext rather than using secure hashing mechanisms such as bcrypt or Argon2. This implementation error meant that if an attacker gained access to server logs, database dumps, or intercepted network traffic, they could immediately retrieve valid credentials without any computational effort required for decryption. Furthermore, the application accepted these password credentials through URL query parameters during authentication attempts. Transmitting sensitive authentication data via URLs is a well-known anti-pattern because URLs are frequently logged by web servers, reverse proxies, load balancers, and browser history, thereby creating multiple vectors for credential leakage outside of the immediate application context.
The operational impact of this vulnerability was severe due to the lack of effective rate limiting or attempt throttling on the authentication endpoint. An unauthenticated attacker could target a public dashboard that had password protection enabled and perform unlimited online brute-force attacks against the plaintext passwords stored in the backend. Without mechanisms such as account lockout, CAPTCHA challenges, or exponential backoff delays, an automated script could test millions of common passwords per minute significantly increasing the probability of successful compromise for any but the most complex user-generated passwords. This aligns with CWE-798 which describes the use of hardcoded credentials and CWE-319 regarding cleartext transmission of sensitive information, as well as CWE-307 concerning insufficient verification of credentials.
Even in cases where brute-force attacks failed to recover a password, the vulnerability still posed risks related to information disclosure. Failed authentication attempts would reveal structural details about the dashboard such as chart counts and configuration metadata, allowing an attacker to profile the target environment. Once a valid password was recovered through either log analysis or successful online guessing, the attacker gained full access to the protected dashboard and its underlying data. This could lead to unauthorized viewing of sensitive business intelligence, financial metrics, or operational data depending on what charts were configured within that specific dashboard instance. The combination of plaintext storage, URL-based transmission, and unrestricted login attempts created a compound vulnerability scenario where defense-in-depth principles were effectively bypassed by the application's design choices.
To mitigate these issues in earlier versions, administrators could implement reverse proxy rules to rate-limit requests to the authentication endpoint or mask query parameters from access logs if possible. However, the definitive remediation required upgrading Chartbrew to version 5.2.3 or later where the developers addressed these flaws by implementing proper password hashing and likely introducing rate limiting mechanisms for login attempts. Organizations relying on this software should ensure their instances are updated immediately to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive dashboard data. This incident highlights the critical importance of adhering to industry standards such as OWASP Authentication Cheat Sheet guidelines which mandate secure credential storage, safe transmission methods using POST bodies rather than URL parameters, and robust brute-force protection measures for all authentication flows involving user-supplied secrets.