CVE-2026-52809: Gogs: Password-reset tokens use account-activation lifetime, ignoring RESET_PASSWORD_CODE_LIVES

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-52809 is a medium (CVSS 6.8) Use of a Key Past its Expiration Date vulnerability in gogs. EPSS estimates a 0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 10.1% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 24-06-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 26-06-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Gogs is an open source self-hosted Git service. Prior to 0.14.3, password-reset tokens are generated using conf.Auth.ActivateCodeLives (the account-activation lifetime), not conf.Auth.ResetPasswordCodeLives. The token lifetime is baked into the token itself at generation time and is re-extracted from the token at verification time, making RESET_PASSWORD_CODE_LIVES irrelevant to actual enforcement. When an administrator configures a shorter reset window (e.g., 10 minutes) for compliance or security reasons, reset tokens remain exploitable for the full activation lifetime instead, while the reset email falsely advertises the shorter expiry. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.14.3.

• CWE-324Use of a Key Past its Expiration DateThe product uses a cryptographic key past its expiration date.
• CWE-613DEPRECATED: Insufficient Session ExpirationThis entry has been deprecated because it was insufficiently clear. Consider CWE-1462 and its descendants.