Cookie persistence after password changes in symfony/security-bundle
Description
Since the rework of the Remember me cookie in Symfony 5.3, the cookie is not invalidated anymore when the user changes its password.
Attackers can therefore maintain their access to the account even if the password is changed as long as they have had the chance to login once and get a valid remember me cookie.
Resolution
Symfony now makes the password part of the signature by default. In that way, when the password changes then the cookie is not valid anymore.
The patch for this issue is available here for branch 5.3.
Credits
We would like to thank Thibaut Decherit for reporting the issue and Wouter J for fixing the issue.
Affected software
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| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composer package | symfony/security-bundle | >= 5.3.0, < 5.3.12 | 5.3.12 |
| Composer package | symfony/symfony | >= 5.3.0, < 5.3.12 | 5.3.12 |
References
- https://github.com/symfony/symfony/security/advisories/GHSA-qw36-p97w-vcqr
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-41268
- https://github.com/symfony/symfony/pull/44243
- https://github.com/symfony/symfony/commit/36a808b857cd3240244f4b224452fb1e70dc6dfc
- https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/security-bundle/CVE-2021-41268.yaml
- https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/security-advisories/blob/master/symfony/symfony/CVE-2021-41268.yaml
- https://github.com/symfony/symfony
- https://github.com/symfony/symfony/releases/tag/v5.3.12
- https://symfony.com/cve-2021-41268
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-384- Platform
- Composer
- Package
symfony/security-bundle, symfony/symfony- Disclosed
- 24.11.2021
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 10:22
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-qw36-p97w-vcqr - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: symfony/symfony
All published vulnerabilities of this package (Composer package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 100
- First → latest
- 11.2019 06.2026
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Critical 8
- High 28
- Medium 51
- Low 13
Disclosures per year
- 2019: 6
- 2020: 7
- 2021: 6
- 2022: 29
- 2023: 5
- 2024: 16
- 2025: 1
- 2026: 30
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