External Authentication security updates, in plain English

External Authentication

112,148 sites report using it · on drupal.org · 1 security update explained here

This module allows people to log into the website using accounts from other systems.

Below is every security update for External Authentication that this site has covered, newest first. Each one says who could exploit it, whether it applies to your site, how urgent it is, and what to tell your developer. If your site uses this module and you are not sure which version, that is the first question to ask whoever looks after it.

External Authentication

Moderately critical · 112,148 sites report using it · SA-CONTRIB-2026-098 · on drupal.org · Week of 12 August 2026

A logged in user could trick the system into matching their account with another person because of how the database reads text. This would let them view and alter information belonging to that other person. They could not read or change unrelated website settings.

Who could do thisOnly someone with a login on your site.
Does it apply to youThis applies to sites using specific text sorting settings in their MySQL or MariaDB database.
Has it been used in attacksNo sign of it.
How urgentDrupal rates this moderately critical. Include it in your next routine update, within the month.

Tell your developerUpdate External Authentication to 2.0.13.

For developers: what the fix changed

The fix updates the authmap schema in externalauth.install to make the authname and provider columns binary safe. It also adds a strict PHP comparison in Authmap::getUid within src/Authmap.php to ensure the fetched values exactly match the supplied values.

Also in this release The release also adds tests to verify the collation fix and updates a spellcheck configuration file.

2.0.12 to 2.0.13 1 commit, 5 files including 2 tests.

.gitlab-ci.yml +1 −1
externalauth.install +59 −0 fix
src/Authmap.php +6 −4 fix

Full diff, 2.0.12 to 2.0.13

The comparison is against the release immediately before the fix. If your site is on an older release, more will have changed.

Get in touch

Tell me who you are, what your organisation does, and what you need. That might be a Drupal site that needs looking after, an upgrade to get done before December, or an agency that needs Drupal cover.

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For context: I work mainly with UK charities, membership bodies and research organisations, and with the agencies that look after their websites. Not recruiters.

Or start smaller and connect with me on LinkedIn. That's where I post what I find digging around in charity and grants data, and where the free tools turn up first.

External Authentication

External Authentication

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Reference