Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessOperate malicious federated ActivityPub server
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DeliveryCraft JSON-LD payload with divergent context resolution
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ExploitDeliver signed message to target Misskey instance
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ExecutionSignature verification passes under one context
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PersistCompaction resolves different content under second context
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ImpactFraudulent federated activity accepted as legitimate
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture TOCTOU prevention
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| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires that the target Misskey instance has federation (ActivityPub) enabled and is actively processing incoming signed JSON-LD messages from external federated servers - this is the default operational mode for Misskey deployments. The attacker must be able to deliver a crafted ActivityPub message to the target, either by operating a malicious federated server reachable by the target or by relaying a manipulated message through the federation network. AC:H indicates the exploit requires carefully structured JSON-LD payloads that produce divergent context resolution between the verification and processing phases, which is technically demanding. No authentication to the target instance is required (PR:N). Instances running versions prior to 12.37.0 are explicitly not affected. Instances with federation disabled are not exposed to this attack vector. |
| Impact | The CVSS 4.0 score of 8.9 is driven by the network attack vector (AV:N), no required privileges (PR:N), no user interaction (UI:N), and high integrity impact on both the vulnerable system (VI:H) and subsequent systems (SI:H), reflecting that fraudulent federated activities could propagate across the ActivityPub network. The AC:H rating is the primary mitigating factor - crafting a valid exploit requires precise JSON-LD payload construction to exploit the context divergence between the two processing phases, which is technically non-trivial. No KEV listing is present, and no public POC has been identified, indicating no observed widespread exploitation. EPSS data is not provided in the input. Despite the high CVSS score, the combination of AC:H complexity, the niche deployment footprint of self-hosted Misskey instances, and the absence of public exploit code places this at moderate near-term mass-exploitation risk. For operators of federated Misskey instances, however, integrity of federated activities is foundational to platform trust, making this a genuine priority despite the lack of observed exploitation. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker operates a malicious ActivityPub-compatible federated server and crafts a JSON-LD signed message designed to exploit the context mismatch in Misskey's verification pipeline - for example, embedding a forged follow relationship or spoofed activity from a trusted federated peer. The message's cryptographic signature passes verification under one JSON-LD context interpretation, but when the message is processed under a different context during compaction, the fraudulent payload content is accepted as legitimate, allowing the attacker's counterfeit activity to persist in the target instance. No public exploit code is known at time of analysis. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Aug 03, 2026
JSON-LD signature validation in Misskey's ActivityPub federation layer accepts fraudulent federated activities due to a TOCTOU flaw where the JSON-LD parsing context used during signature verification is not shared with the context used during subsequent message processing. Affected are all self-hosted Misskey instances running versions 12.37.0 through 2026.5.3. A remote, unauthenticated attacker operating or spoofing a federated server can craft payloads that pass signature checks yet resolve to malicious content during processing, resulting in high integrity impact across the instance and potentially propagating to federated peers; no public exploit or CISA KEV listing has been identified at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Upgrade to Misskey version 2026.5.4, which is confirmed as the fix release by the vendor security advisory GHSA-38jx-423m-g387 (https://github.com/misskey-dev/misskey/security/advisories/GHSA-38jx-423m-g387) and the official release at https://github.com/misskey-dev/misskey/releases/tag/2026.5.4. If an immediate upgrade is not feasible, restricting federation to a known-trusted allowlist of instances is the most actionable compensating control - this limits the attack surface to servers you control or vet, though it degrades interoperability with the broader Fediverse. Disabling federation entirely eliminates exposure but removes the core federated functionality of the platform. No configuration-level workaround fully addresses the TOCTOU architectural issue without the patch. Upstream fix availability is confirmed via the tagged release; no earlier patched version is indicated.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
Misskey implements the ActivityPub protocol for federation, which relies on JSON-LD (Linked Data) for structured message signing via JSON-LD signatures. JSON-LD documents are compacted and expanded using a 'context' that governs term resolution and data interpretation. The root cause (CWE-367: Time-of-Check Time-of-Use Race Condition) is an architectural gap: the JSON-LD context is not shared between the signature verification phase and the subsequent compaction/processing phase. Because the two phases may resolve the same document under different contexts, an attacker can embed content that passes cryptographic verification under one interpretation but is processed as different, attacker-controlled content under another. This is a classic TOCTOU flaw applied to a cryptographic trust boundary. The affected CPE is cpe:2.3:a:misskey-dev:misskey:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*, covering the version range 12.37.0 up to (but not including) 2026.5.4.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:H/SA:N
Network vector and no auth required; AC:H reflects non-trivial JSON-LD context manipulation; S:C because fraudulent activities can propagate to downstream federated instances beyond the vulnerable component.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Misskey is an open source, federated social media platform. Versions 12.37.0 and later, but prior to 2026.5.4, are vulnerable to timing attacks during JSON-LD signature validation and the compaction process. Because the JSON-LD parsing context is not shared between signature verification and subsequent processing, the application may trust information that should not be trusted, resulting in a time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) flaw. This allows an attacker to have fraudulent activities accepted as valid, leading to a loss of integrity. This issue has been fixed in version 2026.5.4.
Executive ViewAI
A JSON-LD signature validation flaw in Misskey's federation layer allows remote attackers to inject fraudulent activities that bypass integrity checks and propagate across federated networks. Self-hosted Misskey instances running versions 12.37.0-2026.5.3 face risk of message spoofing, malicious content injection, and potential organization-wide and cross-federation impact.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: enforce strict federated peer whitelisting with cryptographic re-verification of peer identity certificates; enable full audit logging of all federated activities including JSON-LD context resolution chains; implement network-level anomaly detection on federation traffic and rate-limit remote servers; monitor federated peer servers for compromise indicators; consider temporarily restricting federation scope to pre-approved trusted peers only pending patch release.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.
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EUVD-2026-52488
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
VulDB
Exploit-DB