CVE-2023-22488

Missing authorization in Flarum

Description

Flarum is a forum software for building communities. Using the notifications feature, one can read restricted/private content and bypass access checks that would be in place for such content. The notification-sending component does not check that the subject of the notification can be seen by the receiver, and proceeds to send notifications through their different channels. The alerts do not leak data despite this as they are listed based on a visibility check, however, emails are still sent out. This means that, for extensions which restrict access to posts, any actor can bypass the restriction by subscribing to the discussion if the Subscriptions extension is enabled. The attack allows the leaking of some posts in the forum database, including posts awaiting approval, posts in tags the user has no access to if they could subscribe to a discussion before it becomes private, and posts restricted by third-party extensions. All Flarum versions prior to v1.6.3 are affected. The vulnerability has been fixed and published as flarum/core v1.6.3. All communities running Flarum should upgrade as soon as possible to v1.6.3. As a workaround, disable the Flarum Subscriptions extension or disable email notifications altogether. There are no other supported workarounds for this issue for Flarum versions below 1.6.3.

Category

6.8
CVSS
Severity: Medium
CVSS 3.1 •
EPSS 0.04%
Third-Party Advisory github.com Third-Party Advisory github.com
Affected: flarum framework
Published at:
Updated at:

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the severity of CVE-2023-22488?
CVE-2023-22488 has been scored as a medium severity vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2023-22488?
To fix CVE-2023-22488, make sure you are using an up-to-date version of the affected component(s) by checking the vendor release notes. As for now, there are no other specific guidelines available.
Is CVE-2023-22488 being actively exploited in the wild?
As for now, there are no information to confirm that CVE-2023-22488 is being actively exploited. According to its EPSS score, there is a ~0% probability that this vulnerability will be exploited by malicious actors in the next 30 days.
What software or system is affected by CVE-2023-22488?
CVE-2023-22488 affects flarum framework.
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