wallabag subject to Improper Authorization via annotationsGHSA-mrqx-mjc4-vfh3
MEDIUMFix: wallabag/wallabag@5ac6b6bGHSA-mrqx-mjc4-vfh3 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) CWE-285 vulnerability in wallabag/wallabag. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for wallabag/wallabag — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-mrqx-mjc4-vfh3.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
wallabag/wallabagReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
The annotations feature lets users add annotations on highlighted parts of an entry.
The controller does not validate authorization on PUT and DELETE requests which lets a logged user modify or delete any annotation using their ID on their endpoints example.org/annotations/{id}.
These vulnerable requests also disclose highlighted parts of the entry to the attacker.
You should immediately patch your instance to version 2.5.3 or higher if you have more than one user and/or having open registration.
Resolution
A user check is now done in the vulnerable methods before applying change on an annotation.
The Annotation retrieval through a ParamConverter has also been replaced with a call to the AnnotationRepository in order to prevent any information disclosure through response discrepancy.
Workarounds
Credits
We would like to thank @bAuh0lz for reporting this issue through huntr.dev.
Reference: https://huntr.dev/bounties/8fdd9b31-d89b-4bbe-9557-20b960faf926/
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | wallabag/wallabag | ≥ 2.0.0-beta.1&&< 2.5.3 | 2.5.3composer require wallabag/wallabag:^2.5.3 |
Affected Products
wallabagwallabagResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for wallabag/wallabag, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update wallabag/wallabag to 2.5.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-mrqx-mjc4-vfh3 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-mrqx-mjc4-vfh3 in your dependencies?
Find it across Packagist, including transitive dependencies.