CVE-2022-31007 is a vulnerability identified in versions of eLabFTW prior to 4.3.0, an electronic lab notebook management system widely used by research teams to organize and document scientific experiments and data. The vulnerability arises from improper validation and authorization logic (CWE-842: Placement of User into Incorrect Group and CWE-1287: Improper Validation of Specified Type of Input) that allows an authenticated user who already holds an administrator role within a team to escalate their privileges to a system administrator level. Specifically, such a user can either assign themselves system administrator privileges or create a new system administrator account within the application. In eLabFTW, a team administrator has limited privileges confined to managing users and content within their assigned teams, whereas a system administrator has full control over all accounts, teams, and system-wide settings. This privilege escalation flaw does not allow regular users without administrative access to exploit the vulnerability, thus limiting the attack surface. The issue was resolved in version 4.3.0 of eLabFTW. No public exploits have been reported in the wild to date. A recommended workaround prior to patching is to restrict or disable the ability of team administrators to create new accounts, thereby reducing the risk of privilege escalation. The vulnerability requires authentication and some level of administrative access, which reduces the ease of exploitation but still poses a significant risk within compromised or insider threat scenarios.

For European organizations using eLabFTW, particularly research institutions, universities, and biotech or pharmaceutical companies, this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized system-wide administrative access if an attacker compromises or abuses a team administrator account. This could result in unauthorized data access, modification, or deletion of sensitive research data, disruption of lab operations, and potential exposure of intellectual property. The integrity and confidentiality of research data are at risk, which could have downstream effects on research validity and compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR. Although the vulnerability does not allow privilege escalation from a regular user, insider threats or compromised administrator accounts could exploit this flaw to gain full control over the system. This could also facilitate further lateral movement within the organization’s IT environment. The impact on availability is moderate, as system administrators can alter system-wide settings that might disrupt service. Given the critical nature of research data and the collaborative environment of eLabFTW, the vulnerability poses a meaningful risk to European research entities that rely on this software.

1. Immediate upgrade to eLabFTW version 4.3.0 or later to apply the official patch that fixes the privilege escalation vulnerability. 2. Until patching is possible, restrict or disable the ability of team administrators to create new user accounts, as this is a known vector for privilege escalation. 3. Implement strict access controls and monitoring on administrator accounts, including multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of account compromise. 4. Conduct regular audits of user roles and privileges within eLabFTW to detect any unauthorized privilege changes or suspicious account creations. 5. Employ network segmentation and least privilege principles to limit the impact of a compromised eLabFTW system administrator account on other parts of the IT infrastructure. 6. Enable detailed logging and alerting on administrative actions within eLabFTW to facilitate rapid detection and response to potential misuse. 7. Educate team administrators on the risks of privilege escalation and enforce policies to minimize insider threats. 8. Consider integrating eLabFTW with centralized identity and access management (IAM) solutions to better control and monitor user privileges.