MyBB up to 1.8.38 Search exposure of sensitive information through metadata

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as problematic has been reported in MyBB up to 1.8.38. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component Search. The manipulation leads to exposure of sensitive information through metadata. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2025-48941. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in MyBB up to 1.8.38. This issue affects an unknown code of the component Search. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a exposure of sensitive information through metadata vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-1230. The product prevents direct access to a resource containing sensitive information, but it does not sufficiently limit access to metadata that is derived from the original, sensitive information. Impacted is confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

MyBB is free and open source forum software. Prior to version 1.8.39, the search component does not validate permissions correctly, which allows attackers to determine the existence of hidden (draft, unapproved, or soft-deleted) threads containing specified text in the title. The visibility state (`mybb_threads.visible` integer column) of threads is not validated in internal search queries, whose result is used to output a general success or failure of the search. While MyBB validates permissions when displaying the final search results, a search operation that internally produces at least one result outputs a redirect response (as a HTTP redirect, or a success message page with delayed redirect, depending on configuration). On the other hand, a search operation that internally produces no results outputs a corresponding message in the response without a redirect. This allows a user to determine whether threads matching title search parameters exist, including draft threads (`visible` with a value of `-2`), soft-deleted threads (`visible` with a value of `-1`), and unapproved threads (`visible` with a value of `0`); in addition to displaying generally visible threads (`visible` with a value of `1`). This vulnerability does not affect other layers of permissions. In order to exploit the vulnerability, the user must have access to the search functionality, and general access to forums containing the thread(s). The vulnerability does not expose the message content of posts. MyBB 1.8.39 resolves this issue.

The advisory is shared at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-48941 since 05/28/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1592 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 1.8.39 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b8cc332a27e145c33effaccec90e23c103ae5193 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Content Management System

Name

• MyBB

Version

• 1.8.0
• 1.8.1
• 1.8.2
• 1.8.3
• 1.8.4
• 1.8.5
• 1.8.6
• 1.8.7
• 1.8.8
• 1.8.9
• 1.8.10
• 1.8.11
• 1.8.12
• 1.8.13
• 1.8.14
• 1.8.15
• 1.8.16
• 1.8.17
• 1.8.18
• 1.8.19
• 1.8.20
• 1.8.21
• 1.8.22
• 1.8.23
• 1.8.24
• 1.8.25
• 1.8.26
• 1.8.27
• 1.8.28
• 1.8.29
• 1.8.30
• 1.8.31
• 1.8.32
• 1.8.33
• 1.8.34
• 1.8.35
• 1.8.36
• 1.8.37
• 1.8.38

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://mybb.com/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Discussion