Kimai API returns timesheet entries a user should not be authorized to view

Description

Summary

The permission view_other_timesheet performs differently for the Kimai UI and the API, thus returning unexpected data through the API.

Details

When setting the view_other_timesheet permission to true, on the frontend, users can only see timesheet entries for teams they are a part of. When requesting all timesheets from the API, however, all timesheet entries are returned, regardless of whether the user shares team permissions or not.

Example:
There are projects P1 and P2, Teams T1 and T2, users U1 and U2 and Timesheet entries E1 and E2. U1 is team leader of team T1 and has access to P1. U2 is in Team T2 and has access to both P1 and P2. U2 creates E1 for P1 and E2 for P2.
In the UI, U1 with view _other_timesheet perms sees E1 as he is a part of T1 that has access to P1.
In the API, however, he has access to E1 and E2.

Additionally, if U1 is not a team leader T1, he does not see any timesheet from a user other than himself in the UI, but still all timesheets in the API.

PoC

  • Give a user view_other_timesheet permission
  • The result of the UI and the API call to /api/timesheets?user=all differs in the data that is being returned

Curl command:
bash curl -X 'GET' \ 'https://kimai.instance.com/api/timesheets?user=all' \ -H 'accept: application/json' \ -H 'X-AUTH-USER: username' \ -H 'X-AUTH-TOKEN: api_token'

Impact

This is at least an insufficient granularity of access control weakness. People can see timesheet entries they are not supposed to.
This greatly affects the confidentiality of timesheet entries.

Restricting API access to administrators is also not a valid solution, as API access is needed, for example, to use the mobile app.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2024-03-29 19:05:49 UTC
Updated
2025-10-13 15:42:26 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2024-03-29 19:05:49 UTC
NVD published
2024-03-28

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.28% 51.21%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
6.8 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-1220 Insufficient Granularity of Access Control

Credits

  • AstroGD (reporter)

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
composer kimai/kimai < 2.13.0 2.13.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence