eLabFTW is an open source electronic lab notebook for research labs.  In an eLabFTW system, one might disallow user creation except for by system administrators, administrators and trusted services. If administrators are allowed to create new users (which is the default), the vulnerability allows any user to create new users in teams where they are members. The new users are automatically validated and administrators are not notified. This can allow a user with permanent or temporary access to a user account or API key to maintain persistence in an eLabFTW system. Additionally, it allows the user to create separate account under a different name, and produce misleading revision histories. No additional privileges are granted to the new user. Users should upgrade to version 5.0.0 to receive a patch. As a workaround, disabling both options that allow *administrators* to create users will provide a mitigation.

eLabFTW is an open source electronic lab notebook for research labs. In an eLabFTW system, one can configure who is allowed to create new user accounts. A vulnerability has been found starting in version 4.4.0 and prior to version 5.0.0 that allows regular users to create new, validated accounts in their team. If the system has anonymous access enabled (disabled by default) an unauthenticated user can create regular users in any team. This vulnerability has been fixed since version 5.0.0, released on February 17th 2024. Some workarounds are available. Disabling both options that allow *administrators* to create users will provide a mitigation. Additionally, disabling anonymous user access will stop anonymous access (including using existing access keys).