GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Packagist
GHSA-xvv6-p4wf-mvx7 TYPO3 CMS Stores Cleartext Password in User Settings Module
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-6553
- Ecosystem
- Packagist
- Packages
- typo3/cms-backend
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-312
- Reviewed
- 2026-04-24
Affected packages
• Packagist typo3/cms-backend: >= 14.2.0, < 14.3.0 → fixed in 14.3.0
Description
Problem
The backend user settings module (`SetupModuleController`) incorrectly conflates entity data (like passwords or email address) with user-interface settings (like theme, display options) when persisting changes. As a result, passwords were stored in cleartext in the `uc` and `user_settings` fields of the `be_users` database table.
The cleartext data was only persisted if users changed their credentials in the backend user settings module when the TYPO3 14.2.0 release was used (not in any other version).
Solution
Update to TYPO3 version 14.3.0 LTS which fixes the problem described.
> [!IMPORTANT]
> Manual actions required
>
> Updating to the patched release does not retroactively clean existing data. It is recommended to execute all User Settings upgrade wizards in the TYPO3 Install Tool, including the dedicated User Settings Scrubbing wizard, which sanitizes the incorrectly persisted cleartext values from the `uc` and `user_settings` fields of the `be_users` table. Additionally, affected backend user accounts should be assigned new passwords.
>
> _Admin Tools → Upgrade → Upgrade Wizard → User Settings Scrubbing_
Credits
TYPO3 thanks Martin Clewing for reporting this issue, and TYPO3 core team members Oliver Hader, Stefan Bürk and Garvin Hicking for fixing it.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-6553 Changing backend users' passwords via the user settings module results in storing the cleartext password in the uc and user_settings fields… vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-312 Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information weakness
References
- https://github.com/TYPO3/typo3/security/advisories/GHSA-xvv6-p4wf-mvx7 web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-6553 advisory
- https://github.com/TYPO3/typo3/commit/9a6e913f70767f63b322ae3e2d2f4e302624c291 web
- https://github.com/TYPO3/typo3 package
- https://typo3.org/security/advisory/typo3-core-sa-2026-005 web