CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:NNodeBB does not bind the claimed author of an inbound ActivityPub object to the authenticated remote actor. The inbound middleware verifies the HTTP-signature actor and checks the origin of object.id, but never validates that attributedTo corresponds to the sender. In the object mock, attributedTo is used directly as a uid, and actors.assert silently ignores numeric identifiers (filtering them out without re-deriving the uid), so a federated remote actor can set attributedTo to a bare numeric value such as 1 and have the resulting post or private message created with that local uid as author, including the administrator account. This lets a remote attacker forge posts and direct messages attributed to arbitrary local users. Requires the ActivityPub/federation feature to be enabled.
NodeBB has patched eight security flaws, including vulnerabilities allowing unauthorized admin access and the ability to read private chats, discovered by AI penetration testing. The flaws, some of which stem from the fo…
