CVE-2024-25618
External OpenID Connect Account Takeover by E-Mail Change in mastodon
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
Description
Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Mastodon allows new identities from configured authentication providers (CAS, SAML, OIDC) to attach to existing local users with the same e-mail address. This results in a possible account takeover if the authentication provider allows changing the e-mail address or multiple authentication providers are configured. When a user logs in through an external authentication provider for the first time, Mastodon checks the e-mail address passed by the provider to find an existing account. However, using the e-mail address alone means that if the authentication provider allows changing the e-mail address of an account, the Mastodon account can immediately be hijacked. All users logging in through external authentication providers are affected. The severity is medium, as it also requires the external authentication provider to misbehave. However, some well-known OIDC providers (like Microsoft Azure) make it very easy to accidentally allow unverified e-mail changes. Moreover, OpenID Connect also allows dynamic client registration. This issue has been addressed in versions 4.2.6, 4.1.14, 4.0.14, and 3.5.18. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 6 days later
· 6 days later
Published
- 15 months later
· 15 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium4.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | High7.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.47% · top 59% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.2.
Weakness
Affected products
References (2)
- https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/security/advisories/GHSA-vm39-j3vx-pch3 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/b31af34c9716338e4a32a62cc812d1ca59e88d15 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2024-25618)Record last updated .