7.5
HIGH CVSS 3.1
CVE-2026-72914
Mastodon: Exhausting data by an unauthenticated request to the admin retention API
Description

Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Prior to 4.4.21, 4.5.14, 4.6.4, and 4.7.0-beta.1, the administrative statistics endpoints handled by Api::V1::Admin::MeasuresController and Api::V1::Admin::RetentionController checked authorization only after beginning expensive calculations. Anonymous callers could submit keys, start_at, and end_at parameters that caused long-running SQL queries in Admin::Metrics::Measure, Admin::Metrics::Retention, and Admin::Metrics::Dimension::BaseDimension, allowing repeated requests to exhaust server resources. This issue is fixed in versions 4.4.21, 4.5.14, 4.6.4, and 4.7.0-beta.1.

INFO

Published Date :

Aug. 10, 2026, 10:17 p.m.

Last Modified :

Aug. 10, 2026, 10:17 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-72914 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

No affected product recoded yet

CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 3.1 HIGH [email protected]
CVSS 3.1 HIGH MITRE-CVE
Solution
Update Mastodon to a patched version to fix resource exhaustion via administrative statistics endpoints.
  • Update Mastodon to version 4.4.21 or later.
  • Update Mastodon to version 4.5.14 or later.
  • Update Mastodon to version 4.6.4 or later.
  • Update Mastodon to version 4.7.0-beta.1 or later.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-72914 is associated with the following CWEs:

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2026-72914 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-72914 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Aug. 10, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Affected [{'vendor': 'mastodon', 'product': 'mastodon', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '< 4.4.21'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '>= 4.5.0-beta.1, < 4.5.14'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '>= 4.6.0-beta.1, < 4.6.4'}]}]
    Added Description Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Prior to 4.4.21, 4.5.14, 4.6.4, and 4.7.0-beta.1, the administrative statistics endpoints handled by Api::V1::Admin::MeasuresController and Api::V1::Admin::RetentionController checked authorization only after beginning expensive calculations. Anonymous callers could submit keys, start_at, and end_at parameters that caused long-running SQL queries in Admin::Metrics::Measure, Admin::Metrics::Retention, and Admin::Metrics::Dimension::BaseDimension, allowing repeated requests to exhaust server resources. This issue is fixed in versions 4.4.21, 4.5.14, 4.6.4, and 4.7.0-beta.1.
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
    Added CWE CWE-405
    Added CWE CWE-770
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/18c61f286f1f5718a8f517940ba384866ffa3892
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/467c933459c7d0e5513475b9e4888afaedfb1074
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/930aa9fee26bf9eaefe27826fa1061288d83373b
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/da47a1bd3cd07935d7ca55a1f4f1a76f7f167e0d
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.4.21
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.5.14
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.6.4
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.7.0-beta.1
    Added Reference https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/security/advisories/GHSA-7jvv-fhmg-wpfw
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.