{"id":"CVE-2023-42452","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2023-42452","generatedAt":"2026-10-28T02:15:25.278Z","title":"In versions on the 4.x branch prior to versions 4.0.10, 4.2.8, and 4.2.0-rc2, under certain conditions, attackers can abuse the translation feature to bypass the server-side HTML sanitization, allowing unescaped HTML to execute in the browser.","description":"Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. In versions on the 4.x branch prior to versions 4.0.10, 4.2.8, and 4.2.0-rc2, under certain conditions, attackers can abuse the translation feature to bypass the server-side HTML sanitization, allowing unescaped HTML to execute in the browser. The impact is limited thanks to Mastodon's strict Content Security Policy, blocking inline scripts, etc. However a CSP bypass or loophole could be exploited to execute malicious XSS. Furthermore, it requires user interaction, as this can only occur upon clicking the “Translate” button on a malicious post. Versions 4.0.10, 4.2.8, and 4.2.0-rc2 contain a patch for this issue.","published":"2023-09-19T16:15:14.000Z","lastModified":"2026-06-17T06:23:52.000Z","status":"Modified","sourceIdentifier":"security-advisories@github.com","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":5.4,"severity":"MEDIUM","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N"},"cwe":["CWE-79"],"affected":["joinmastodon/mastodon"],"epss":{"score":0.00438,"percentile":0.37838,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"low","text":"Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.44%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/ff32475f5f4a84ebf9619e7eef5bf8b4c075d0e2","tags":["Patch"],"source":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/security/advisories/GHSA-2693-xr3m-jhqr","tags":["Vendor Advisory"],"source":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/ff32475f5f4a84ebf9619e7eef5bf8b4c075d0e2","tags":["Patch"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/security/advisories/GHSA-2693-xr3m-jhqr","tags":["Vendor Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-42452","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}