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NVD / CVE Program· CNA GitHub_M

CVE-2026-23962: Mastodon vulnerable to Denial of Service from a single post (client/server)

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 30/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.54% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
  • According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Mastodon versions before v4.3.18, v4.4.12, and v4.5.5 do not have a limit on the maximum number of poll options for remote posts, allowing attackers to create polls with a very large amount of options, greatly increasing resource consumption. Depending on the number of poll options, an attacker can cause disproportionate resource usage in both Mastodon servers and clients, potentially causing Denial of Service either server-side or client-side. Mastodon versions v4.5.5, v4.4.12, v4.3.18 are patched.

HighCVSS 7.5 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
Jan 21, 2026
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.5% · 45th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

30

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.5%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
—
CNA · GitHub_M
7.5
NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2026-23962

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
joinmastodonmastodon

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • joinmastodon mastodonbefore 4.3.18
  • joinmastodon mastodon4.4.0 and later · before 4.4.12
  • joinmastodon mastodon4.5.0 and later · before 4.5.5

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • mastodon mastodon

    • < 4.3.18, >= 4.4.0, < 4.4.12, >= 4.5.0, < 4.5.5affected

Same product

joinmastodon: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2023-36460Mastodon vulnerable to arbitrary file creation through media attachments
    51Plan
  • CVE-2024-23832Mastodon Remote user impersonation and takeover
    40Plan
  • CVE-2018-21018Mastodon before 2.6.3 mishandles timeouts of incompletely established sessions.
    40Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-22246Jan 8, 2026 · Local Mastodon users can enumerate and access severed relationships of every other local user
    17Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-23961Jan 21, 2026 · Mastodon may allow a remote suspension bypass
    21Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-23963Jan 21, 2026 · Mastodon missing length limits on list names, filter names, and filter keywords
    26Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

  • CVE-2025-54879169 days apartMastodon e‑mail throttle misconfiguration allows unlimited email confirmations against unconfirmed emails
    30Monitor
  • CVE-2026-239630 days apartMastodon missing length limits on list names, filter names, and filter keywords
    26Monitor
  • CVE-2025-27157328 days apartMastodon's rate-limits are missing on `/auth/setup`
    21Monitor

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-770 · Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

CVSS vector

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

nvd-secondary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

Show all references (3 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records