Cyber Posture

CVE-2023-53957

CriticalPublic PoC

Published: 19 December 2025

Published
19 December 2025
Modified
19 February 2026
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0024 46.3th percentile
Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Description

Kimai 1.30.10 contains a SameSite cookie vulnerability that allows attackers to steal user session cookies through malicious exploitation. Attackers can trick victims into executing a crafted PHP script that captures and writes session cookie information to a file, enabling potential…

more

session hijacking.

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

prevent

Requires timely identification, reporting, and patching of the SameSite cookie flaw in Kimai, directly preventing session cookie theft and hijacking.

prevent

Mandates secure baseline configuration settings for session cookies, including proper SameSite attributes to block cross-site requests that steal cookies.

prevent

Implements mechanisms to protect session authenticity against interception and replay, mitigating risks from stolen session cookies via SameSite enforcement.

Security SummaryAI

CVE-2023-53957 is a SameSite cookie vulnerability in Kimai version 1.30.10, a PHP-based time-tracking application. The flaw allows attackers to steal user session cookies by exploiting improper cookie attributes, specifically through a crafted PHP script that captures and writes session cookie data to a file on the server. This issue is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is associated with CWE-1275.

Any unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit this vulnerability remotely with low complexity and no privileges required. By tricking victims into executing the crafted PHP script—potentially via social engineering or cross-site scripting—the attacker can capture valid session cookies, enabling session hijacking and unauthorized access to the victim's account in Kimai.

Advisories and references recommend mitigation through patching. The Kimai GitHub release page for tag 1.30.10 likely details fixes for this issue, urging users to upgrade to a patched version. An exploit is publicly available on Exploit-DB (ID 51278), and VulnCheck's advisory highlights the SameSite cookie misconfiguration leading to session hijacking, emphasizing immediate updates to prevent exploitation.

Details

CWE(s)

Affected Products

kimai
kimai
1.30.10

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie Credential Access
An adversary may steal web application or service session cookies and use them to gain access to web applications or Internet services as an authenticated user without needing credentials.
Why these techniques?

The vulnerability in a public-facing web application (T1190) enables unauthenticated remote exploitation to steal web session cookies (T1539) via SameSite misconfiguration, facilitating session hijacking.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

References