Authentication bypass via timing-variable token comparison
Published May 8, 2026 · Updated May 8, 2026
Timing discrepancy in RELATE 2024.1 and earlier allows remote attackers to recover valid sign-in tokens through response measurements. The check_sign_in_key() and EmailedTokenBackend.authenticate() paths compare attacker-supplied tokens with Python's timing-variable == operator instead of a constant-time comparison. No authentication or user interaction is required, but exploitation requires repeated network requests and precise timing measurements to recover a token byte by byte.
Summary
What happened
Timing discrepancy in RELATE 2024.1 and earlier allows remote attackers to recover valid sign-in tokens through response measurements. The check_sign_in_key() and EmailedTokenBackend.authenticate() paths compare attacker-supplied tokens with Python's timing-variable == operator instead of a constant-time comparison. No authentication or user interaction is required, but exploitation requires repeated network requests and precise timing measurements to recover a token byte by byte.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-41588
- Published
- May 8, 2026
- Updated
- May 8, 2026
- Vendor
- inducer
- Product
- RELATE
- Classifications
- CWE-203, CWE-208
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 8, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 8, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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- Affected versionversion=< 2f68e16cd3b96d25c188c1aa3f7e13cdb15cdaeb
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
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Technologies
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Your stack
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