CVE-2026-23964 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-23964: Mastodon has insufficient access control to push notification settings

Vendor Mastodon
Product mastodon
Weakness CWE-863 · Incorrect authorization
Published January 22, 2026
Last update January 22, 2026

CVSS base score

6.5/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality Low
Integrity Low

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

January 22, 2026 CVE published
January 22, 2026 Record updated