Medium severity · published Jan 22, 2026
CVE-2026-23964
Mastodon has insufficient access control to push notification settings
5.4
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Prior to versions 4.5.5, 4.4.12, and 4.3.18, an insecure direct object reference in the web push subscription update endpoint lets any authenticated user update another user's push subscription by guessing or obtaining the numeric subscription id. This can be used to disrupt push notifications for other users and also leaks the web push subscription endpoint. Any user with a web push subscription is impacted, because another authenticated user can tamper with their push subscription settings if they can guess or obtain the subscription id. This allows an attacker to disrupt push notifications by changing the policy (whether to filter notifications from non-followers or non-followed users) and subscribed notification types of their victims. Additionally, the endpoint returns the subscription object, which includes the push notification endpoint for this subscription, but not its keypair. Mastodon versions v4.5.5, v4.4.12, v4.3.18 are patched.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 14% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
MA
mastodon · mastodon
< 4.3.18; >= 4.4.0, < 4.4.12; >= 4.5.0, < 4.5.5 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23964
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23964
Release Notes
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.3.18
Release Notes
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.4.12
Release Notes
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.5.5
Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/security/advisories/GHSA-f3q8-7vw3-69v4
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