CVE-2026-23961

Mastodon may allow a remote suspension bypass

State
Published
Severity
5.3 Medium
Published
Jan 22, 2026
Updated
Jan 22, 2026
Reserved
Jan 19, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Mastodon allows server administrators to suspend remote users to prevent interactions. However, some logic errors allow already-known posts from such suspended users to appear in timelines if boosted. Furthermore, under certain circumstances, previously-unknown posts from suspended users can be processed. This issue allows old posts from suspended users to occasionally end up on timelines on all Mastodon versions. Additionally, on Mastodon versions from v4.5.0 to v4.5.4, v4.4.5 to v4.4.11, v4.3.13 to v4.3.17, and v4.2.26 to v4.2.29, remote suspended users can partially bypass the suspension to get new posts in. Mastodon versions v4.5.5, v4.4.12, v4.3.18 are patched.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.15.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:NGitHub_M

Weaknesses

Affected Products

ProductVersions
mastodonmastodon
  • < 4.3.18Affected
  • >= 4.4.0, < 4.4.12Affected
  • >= 4.5.0, < 4.5.5Affected

References

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