# CVE-2026-48082: OpenReception appointment booking software weak proof-of-work in bootstrap challenge

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-48082-openreception-appointment-booking-software-weak-proof-of-work-in  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-08-06. Updated: 2026-09-25  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-48082 · Severity: low · CVSS 3.7 · Published 2026-08-06

OpenReception is appointment booking software used by healthcare providers to manage patient scheduling. The software uses a proof-of-work challenge to rate-limit unauthenticated booking requests, but the difficulty is set too low (16 bits), solvable in under 200 milliseconds on commodity hardware. An attacker can bypass the rate-limiting mechanism and rapidly submit malicious booking requests or poison cryptographic credentials at scale.

Technologies: [OpenReception Appointment-Booking-Software](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/appointment-booking-software). Vendors: [OpenReception](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/openreception).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-48082 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-48082 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-48082?** Low severity, with a CVSS score of 3.7, published 6 August 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** OpenReception Appointment-Booking-Software prior to 1.0.6.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-48082?** A patch was published on 2026-08-06: Version 1.0.6 released with increased difficulty from 4 to 5 hex zeros Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

**How is CVE-2026-48082 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a web application.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-48082?** Check whether you run OpenReception Appointment-Booking-Software at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## Technical details

The bootstrap challenge endpoint at `/api/tenants/{id}/appointments/bootstrap-challenge` implements a SHA-256 proof-of-work mechanism with a hardcoded difficulty of 4 hex zeros (16 bits), intended to rate-limit unauthenticated clients. However, modern hardware solves this challenge in under 200 milliseconds using unoptimized code, providing negligible friction. Additionally, the throttle check uses attacker-controlled parameters (tunnelId, clientPublicKey, emailHash) to generate throttle keys, allowing an attacker to bypass per-binding rate-limiting by supplying fresh values on each request. An attacker can rapidly generate bootstrap challenges and solve them without meaningful server-side friction, enabling bulk abuse of the appointment booking flow and amplification of credential poisoning attacks. Version 1.0.6 increases the difficulty to 5 hex zeros; a more comprehensive fix should tune difficulty to a target solve time of 1–4 seconds on representative client hardware.

## Affected products

- OpenReception appointment booking software prior to 1.0.6

## Timeline

- 2026-05-20: disclosed: GHSA-hm9g-mh7x-657g published on GitHub security advisory
- 2026-08-06: advisory: CVE-2026-48082 published on NVD
- 2026-08-06: patched: Version 1.0.6 released with increased difficulty from 4 to 5 hex zeros

## References

- [https://github.com/open-reception/appointment-booking-software/commit/e9c96c049ebf558df7a9e4c5c93f6fe2b092c8c6](https://github.com/open-reception/appointment-booking-software/commit/e9c96c049ebf558df7a9e4c5c93f6fe2b092c8c6)
- [https://github.com/open-reception/appointment-booking-software/security/advisories/GHSA-hm9g-mh7x-657g](https://github.com/open-reception/appointment-booking-software/security/advisories/GHSA-hm9g-mh7x-657g)

## Related threats

- [OpenReception Appointment Booking unauthenticated ML-KEM key injection](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-75525-openreception-s-appointment-booking-software-provides-an-end-to)
- [OpenReception appointment booking race condition in event creation](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-75524-openreception-s-appointment-booking-software-provides-an-end-to)
- [OpenReception appointment booking software authentication bypass in PIN throttle](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-65825-openreception-s-appointment-booking-software-provides-an-end-to)
- [OpenReception appointment booking software invite token replay](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-65824-openreception-s-appointment-booking-software-provides-an-end-to)
- [OpenReception appointment booking account takeover via Host header spoofing](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-58202-openreception-s-appointment-booking-software-provides-an-end-to)