Payload is a free and open source headless content management system. In versions before 3.90.0 and canary versions before 4.0.0-canary.34, an unauthenticated attacker who knows an account email address or username can abuse the account lockout mechanism of a local-authentication collection to prevent that account from signing in. This issue is fixed in versions 3.90.0 and 4.0.0-canary.34.

Affected: npm: payload

### **Impact**

An unauthenticated attacker who knows an account’s email address or username could trigger Payload’s account lockout mechanism and prevent that user from signing in.

You are affected if:

* Using an affected Payload version with an auth-enabled collection that uses local authentication and account lockout.

Applications that do not use Payload local authentication are not affected.

### **Patches**

Successful password resets now clear the account’s lockout state. The forgot-password flow also enforces a configurable minimum interval between reset emails, which defaults to 15 seconds.

Users should upgrade Payload packages to `>= 3.90.0` or `>= 4.0.0-canary.34`.