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Medium

Unauthorized user can register an account in specific configurations in Zulip

Type: advisorySources: OSV

Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool with unique topic-based threading. In the event that 1: `ZulipLDAPAuthBackend` and an external authentication backend (any aside of `ZulipLDAPAuthBackend` and `EmailAuthBackend`) are the only ones enabled in `AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS` in `/etc/zulip/settings.py` and 2: The organization permissions don't require invitations to join. An attacker can create a new account in the organization with an arbitrary email address in their control that's not in the organization's LDAP directory. The impact is limited to installations which have this specific combination of authentication backends as described above in addition to having `Invitations are required for joining this organization` organization permission disabled. This issue has been addressed in version 6.2. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may enable the `Invitations are required for joining this organization` organization permission to prevent this issue.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2023-28623
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
4 Nov 2026, 08:05 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

Unauthorized user can register an account in specific configurations in Zulip

core-osv · Original source

Published 19 May 2023, 21:04 UTC

Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool with unique topic-based threading. In the event that 1: `ZulipLDAPAuthBackend` and an external authentication backend (any aside of `ZulipLDAPAuthBackend` and `EmailAuthBackend`) are the only ones enabled in `AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS` in `/etc/zulip/settings.py` and 2: The organization permissions don't require invitations to join. An attacker can create a new account in the organization with an arbitrary email address in their control that's not in the organization's LDAP directory. The impact is limited to installations which have this specific combination of authentication backends as described above in addition to having `Invitations are required for joining this organization` organization permission disabled. This issue has been addressed in version 6.2. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may enable the `Invitations are required for joining this organization` organization permission to prevent this issue.

osv:CVE-2023-28623
Complete source record
{
  "id": "50ef27bd4e378af2de07aedef593805fbe8061acee0b29e7512943a267082ef4",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-28623",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Unauthorized user can register an account in specific configurations in Zulip",
    "summary": "Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool with unique topic-based threading. In the event that 1: `ZulipLDAPAuthBackend` and an external authentication backend (any aside of `ZulipLDAPAuthBackend` and `EmailAuthBackend`) are the only ones enabled in `AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS` in `/etc/zulip/settings.py` and 2: The organization permissions don't require invitations to join. An attacker can create a new account in the organization with an arbitrary email address in their control that's not in the organization's LDAP directory. The impact is limited to installations which have this specific combination of authentication backends as described above in addition to having `Invitations are required for joining this organization` organization permission disabled. This issue has been addressed in version 6.2. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade may enable the `Invitations are required for joining this organization` organization permission to prevent this issue.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2023-28623",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2023-28623",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2023-28623",
        "GHSA-7p62-pjwg-56rv"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/zulip/zulip",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "03a3ae8b61bd44bb1be06c9af04eeb607fa94d8f"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "5082182e37a453ce66af41796db43458f6455875"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "3df1b4dd7c210c21deb6f829df19412b74573f8d"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "2.1.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "6.2"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "3df1b4dd7c210c21deb6f829df19412b74573f8d"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "6.1",
            "6.0",
            "shared-0.0.16",
            "shared-0.0.15",
            "shared-0.0.14",
            "shared-0.0.13",
            "shared-0.0.12",
            "shared-0.0.11",
            "shared-0.0.10",
            "6.0-dev",
            "5.0",
            "shared-0.0.9",
            "shared-0.0.8",
            "shared-0.0.7",
            "shared-0.0.6",
            "4.0",
            "5.0-dev",
            "shared-0.0.5",
            "shared-0.0.4",
            "shared-0.0.3",
            "4.0-dev",
            "3.0",
            "3.0-rc2",
            "3.0-rc1",
            "3.0-dev",
            "2.2-dev",
            "2.1.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-28623.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:33.622696881Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/28xxx/CVE-2023-28623.json",
        "https://github.com/zulip/zulip/security/advisories/GHSA-7p62-pjwg-56rv",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-28623",
        "https://github.com/zulip/zulip/commit/3df1b4dd7c210c21deb6f829df19412b74573f8d"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-285",
          "CWE-862"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/28xxx/CVE-2023-28623.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2023-28623",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 501059,
  "published_at": "2023-05-19T21:04:51.624+00:00"
}