CVE-2026-73535: Gitea second-factor bypass through OpenID identity linking

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-14 · updated 2026-10-18
Weakness: CWE-304

Description

Gitea's OpenID connect handler accepts a user's password without enforcing enrolled TOTP or WebAuthn verification before completing sign-in and linking an OpenID identifier. When OpenID sign-in is enabled, an attacker who knows the victim's password can obtain a session and link an attacker-controlled identifier. The attacker can then sign in through that identifier without the victim's password or second factor, and a password change does not remove the link.

Affected products

Gitea Open Source Git Server: through 1.27.1

References

https://blog.gitea.com/release-of-1.27.2/
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/38805
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/38810
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/releases/tag/v1.27.2
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/security/advisories/GHSA-8xjr-x7rg-hp5h

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