CVE-2024-23649

Any authenticated user may obtain private message details from other users on the same instance

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: January 24, 2024 at 06:09 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 07:13 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsLemmyLemmy Lemmy

Using lemmy by LemmyNet?

Get instant alerts when new vulnerabilities affect lemmy - before attackers find them.

Real-time alertsTrack your software stackFree plan available
Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Lemmy is a link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Starting in version 0.17.0 and prior to version 0.19.1, users can report private messages, even when they're neither sender nor recipient of the message. The API response to creating a private message report contains the private message itself, which means any user can just iterate over message ids to (loudly) obtain all private messages of an instance. A user with instance admin privileges can also abuse this if the private message is removed from the response, as they're able to see the resulting reports. Creating a private message report by POSTing to `/api/v3/private_message/report` does not validate whether the reporter is the recipient of the message. lemmy-ui does not allow the sender to report the message; the API method should likely be restricted to accessible to recipients only. The API response when creating a report contains the `private_message_report_view` with all the details of the report, including the private message that has been reported: Any authenticated user can obtain arbitrary (untargeted) private message contents. Privileges required depend on the instance configuration; when registrations are enabled without application system, the privileges required are practically none. When registration applications are required, privileges required could be considered low, but this assessment heavily varies by instance. Version 0.19.1 contains a patch for this issue. A workaround is available. If an update to a fixed Lemmy version is not immediately possible, the API route can be blocked in the reverse proxy. This will prevent anyone from reporting private messages, but it will also prevent exploitation before the update has been applied.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

0.17.0 ≤ v < 0.19.1
Affected range stops below 0.19.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 0.19.1
Affected range stops below 0.19.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-200CWE-285NVD-CWE-noinfo

Get alerted

Stop reading CVE feeds looking for your own stack

Track the products you run and VulnTracker tells you when a new CVE affects them — with what is known about fixing it, and nothing about the rest.

Free plan, no card