GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Improper Authentication vulnerability in github.com/lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incus. A fix is available for github.com/lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incus — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Local Incus UI web server vulnerable to nuthentication bypass
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq.
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
GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq 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 378,567 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
github.com/lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incusReal-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 web server spawned by incus webui incorrectly validates the authentication token such that an invalid value will be accepted.
Details
incus webui runs a local web server on a random localhost port. For authentication, it provides the user with a URL containing an authentication token. When accessed with that token, Incus creates a cookie persisting that token without needing to include it in subsequent HTTP requests.
While the Incus client correctly validates the value of the cookie, it does not correctly validate the token when passed int the URL.
This allows for an attacker able to locate and talk to the temporary web server on localhost to have as much access to Incus as the user who ran incus webui.
This can lead to privilege escalation by another local user or an access to the user's Incus instances and possibly system resources by a remote attack able to trick the local user into interacting with the Incus UI web server.
Credit
This issue was discovered and reported by the team at 7asecurity
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incus | all versions | 6.23.0go get github.com/lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incus@v6.23.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incus, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incus to 6.23.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq 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 GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-453r-g2pg-cxxq across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.