CVE-2023-42452 MEDIUM

CVE-2023-42452: Mastodon vulnerable to Stored XSS through the translation feature

Vendor Mastodon
Product mastodon
Weakness CWE-79 · XSS
Published September 19, 2023
Last update September 24, 2024

CVSS base score

6.1/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction Required
Confidentiality Low
Integrity Low

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. In versions on the 4.x branch prior to versions 4.0.10, 4.2.8, and 4.2.0-rc2, under certain conditions, attackers can abuse the translation feature to bypass the server-side HTML sanitization, allowing unescaped HTML to execute in the browser. The impact is limited thanks to Mastodon's strict Content Security Policy, blocking inline scripts, etc. However a CSP bypass or loophole could be exploited to execute malicious XSS. Furthermore, it requires user interaction, as this can only occur upon clicking the “Translate” button on a malicious post. Versions 4.0.10, 4.2.8, and 4.2.0-rc2 contain a patch for this issue.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

September 19, 2023 CVE published
September 24, 2024 Record updated