Unauthenticated CAPTCHA reloads via missing rate limiting
Published Feb 2, 2026 · Updated Feb 2, 2026
Missing rate limiting in Wikimedia Foundation ConfirmEdit allows remote attackers to reload FancyCaptcha challenges without request throttling. ApiFancyCaptchaReload handles reload requests without applying the existing badcaptcha limiter, so each request proceeds instead of being rejected after the configured threshold. The endpoint is reachable only when the FancyCaptcha module is enabled; Wikimedia has not published a concrete confidentiality, integrity, or availability consequence.
Summary
What happened
Missing rate limiting in Wikimedia Foundation ConfirmEdit allows remote attackers to reload FancyCaptcha challenges without request throttling. ApiFancyCaptchaReload handles reload requests without applying the existing badcaptcha limiter, so each request proceeds instead of being rejected after the configured threshold. The endpoint is reachable only when the FancyCaptcha module is enabled; Wikimedia has not published a concrete confidentiality, integrity, or availability consequence.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-61635
- Published
- Feb 2, 2026
- Updated
- Feb 2, 2026
- Vendor
- Wikimedia Foundation
- Product
- ConfirmEdit
- Classifications
- Unavailable
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 2, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 2, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
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Attacks
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