Mastodon up to 4.4.20/4.5.13/4.6.3 RetentionController keys/start_at/end_at improper authorization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as problematic has been found in Mastodon up to 4.4.20/4.5.13/4.6.3. The impacted element is the function Api::V1::Admin::MeasuresController/Api::V1::Admin::RetentionController. Executing a manipulation of the argument keys/start_at/end_at can lead to improper authorization. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-72914. The attack can be launched remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Mastodon up to 4.4.20/4.5.13/4.6.3 and classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects the function Api::V1::Admin::MeasuresController/Api::V1::Admin::RetentionController. The manipulation of the argument keys/start_at/end_at with an unknown input leads to a improper authorization vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-285. The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Prior to 4.4.21, 4.5.14, 4.6.4, and 4.7.0-beta.1, the administrative statistics endpoints handled by Api::V1::Admin::MeasuresController and Api::V1::Admin::RetentionController checked authorization only after beginning expensive calculations. Anonymous callers could submit keys, start_at, and end_at parameters that caused long-running SQL queries in Admin::Metrics::Measure, Admin::Metrics::Retention, and Admin::Metrics::Dimension::BaseDimension, allowing repeated requests to exhaust server resources. This issue is fixed in versions 4.4.21, 4.5.14, 4.6.4, and 4.7.0-beta.1.

The advisory is available at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-72914 since 08/10/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. This vulnerability is assigned to T1548.002 by the MITRE ATT&CK project.

Upgrading to version 4.4.21, 4.5.14, 4.6.4 or 4.7.0-beta.1 eliminates this vulnerability.

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Name

• Mastodon

Version

• 4.4.0
• 4.4.1
• 4.4.2
• 4.4.3
• 4.4.4
• 4.4.5
• 4.4.6
• 4.4.7
• 4.4.8
• 4.4.9
• 4.4.10
• 4.4.11
• 4.4.12
• 4.4.13
• 4.4.14
• 4.4.15
• 4.4.16
• 4.4.17
• 4.4.18
• 4.4.19
• 4.4.20
• 4.5.0
• 4.5.1
• 4.5.2
• 4.5.3
• 4.5.4
• 4.5.5
• 4.5.6
• 4.5.7
• 4.5.8
• 4.5.9
• 4.5.10
• 4.5.11
• 4.5.12
• 4.5.13
• 4.6.0
• 4.6.1
• 4.6.2
• 4.6.3

Website

• Product: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/

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