CVE-2026-23873

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2026-23873 is categorized as a critical CWE-1236 flaw with a CVSS base score of 9. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

hustoj is an open source online judge based on PHP/C++/MySQL/Linux for ACM/ICPC and NOIP training. All versions are vulnerable to CSV Injection (Formula Injection) through the contest rank export functionality (contestrank.xls.php and admin/ranklist_export.php). The application fails to sanitize user-supplied input (specifically the "Nickname" field) before exporting it to an .xls file (which renders as an HTML table but is opened by Excel). If a malicious user sets their nickname to an Excel formula when an administrator exports and opens the rank list in Microsoft Excel, the formula will be executed. This can lead to arbitrary command execution (RCE) on the administrator's machine or data exfiltration. A fix was not available at the time of publication.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Data Exfiltration: Attackers can extract sensitive data from backend databases, configuration files, or internal services.

✅ Authentication Bypass: Exploiting this flaw may allow unauthorized access to protected resources and administrative interfaces.

✅ Lateral Movement: Once initial access is gained, attackers can pivot to internal systems and escalate privileges.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2026-23873

1. Apply Vendor Patches: Upgrade affected components to their latest, non-vulnerable versions immediately.
2. Implement Input Validation: Ensure all user-supplied data is validated, sanitized, and type-checked before processing.
3. Deploy Runtime Protection: Use Precogs continuous monitoring to detect exploitation attempts in real time.
4. Audit Dependencies: Review and update all third-party libraries and transitive dependencies.

Defending with Precogs AI

hustoj contains a critical vulnerability (often SQL injection or RCE in the compilation sandbox). Attackers submit crafted code or exploit unvalidated parameters in the online judge system to extract database credentials or escape the execution sandbox. Precogs Application Security Module tracks untrusted input to dynamic code evaluation sinks.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

# ❌ VULNERABLE: Unsanitized Input Flow
def process_request(request):
    user_input = request.GET.get('data')
    # Taint sink: processing untrusted data
    execute_logic(user_input)
    return {"status": "success"}

Secure Code Pattern

# ✅ SECURE: Input Validation & Sanitization
def process_request(request):
    user_input = request.GET.get('data')
    
    # Sanitized boundary check
    if not is_valid_format(user_input):
        raise ValueError("Invalid input format")
        
    sanitized_data = sanitize(user_input)
    execute_logic(sanitized_data)
    return {"status": "success"}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs AI Analysis Engine maps untrusted input directly to execution sinks to catch complex application security vulnerabilities.\n