CVE-2025-54879
Mastodon e‑mail throttle misconfiguration allows unlimited email confirmations against unconfirmed emails
- 5.3MediumCVSS base score
- 0.61%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 50% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub Mastodon which facilitates LDAP configuration for authentication. In versions 3.1.5 through 4.2.24, 4.3.0 through 4.3.11 and 4.4.0 through 4.4.3, Mastodon's rate-limiting system has a critical configuration error where the email-based throttle for confirmation emails incorrectly checks the password reset path instead of the confirmation path, effectively disabling per-email limits for confirmation requests. This allows attackers to bypass rate limits by rotating IP addresses and send unlimited confirmation emails to any email address, as only a weak IP-based throttle (25 requests per 5 minutes) remains active. The vulnerability enables denial-of-service attacks that can overwhelm mail queues and facilitate user harassment through confirmation email spam. This is fixed in versions 4.2.24, 4.3.11 and 4.4.3.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
- https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/security/advisories/GHSA-84ch-6436-c7mg (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 5 days later
· 5 days later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day 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 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.61% · top 50% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.3.
Affected products
References
References3
- https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/security/advisories/GHSA-84ch-6436-c7mg (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
- https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/commit/e2592419d93fb41be03c2f3ff6a122fecb0e0952 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.4.3 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
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)
- EUVD EUVD-2025-23661 (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://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-54879)Record last updated .