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GHSA-2j32-q6rx-h844 CVE-2026-110904 CVE-2026-113670

ApostropheCMS: Page REST API authorization bypass

Medium npm
Severity
5.3 / 10
Medium · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
0.30%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 23.02% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization
Fix
4.33.0
Upgrade apostrophe to this version or later

Description

Summary The core page REST API reads full page documents with .permission(false) in getOne and in the all=1 tree dump, bypassing page-type viewRole, visibility: private, and visibility: loginRequired checks. Unauthenticated visitors and low-privilege contributors can read admin-only and non-public page content by _id/slug.

Details packages/apostrophe/modules/@apostrophecms/page/index.js:

  • getOne (L456–465): await self.publicApiCheckAsync(req); ... self.getRestQuery(req).permission(false).and(criteria) — no viewRole threshold, no visibility filtering.
  • all handler (L318–395): getRestQuery(req).permission(false) (L384–385) walks every page type and returns the projection including visibility.
  • publicApiCheckAsync (L3044) only checks that publicApiProjection exists — it performs no authorization.
  • Correct control behaves differently: piece-type/index.js:getOne (L319–327) uses getRestQuery(req) without .permission(false) and enforces viewRole.

PoC

# Anonymous (no session) — private, admin-only page:
curl "http://localhost:3100/api/v1/@apostrophecms/page/d576242ve1dkzb12jiiabujd:en:published"
# → 200  {"_id":"...:en:published","title":"Secret Private Page","slug":"/secret-page",
#         "type":"private-type","visibility":"private","secretData":"TOP-SECRET-VALUE-abc123"}

# Anonymous full site-map dump (includes private + loginRequired pages):
curl "http://localhost:3100/api/v1/@apostrophecms/page?all=1"        # → 200, full tree

# Contributor (cont_admin) reads full admin-only doc incl. protected field:
curl -b contrib.cookies ".../api/v1/@apostrophecms/page/d576242ve1dkzb12jiiabujd:en:published"
# → 200  secretData = TOP-SECRET-VALUE-abc123
# Controls (correctly enforced):
curl -b contrib.cookies ".../api/v1/@apostrophecms/page?type=private-type&autocomplete=zz"   # → 403
curl -b contrib.cookies ".../api/v1/@apostrophecms/page/d576242ve1dkzb12jiiabujd:en:draft"   # → 403

Impact Unauthenticated disclosure of visibility: private and loginRequired pages (full documents, not just paths) and of the complete site structure with visibility/type metadata; contributors read admin-only page types and their protected fields. Because _ids are enumerable and leaked by all=1, this is systemic.

Remediation — Remove .permission(false) from getOne/all or re-apply the type's viewRole threshold plus the same visibility/login-required criteria the list and autocomplete paths use (mirror piece-type); make publicApiCheck config-presence-only and add an explicit authorization step per verb.

Affected versions

npm

PackageVulnerableFixed in
apostrophe
< 4.33.0
4.33.0

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

apostrophe npm → 4.33.0

npm
npm install apostrophe@4.33.0
yarn
yarn add apostrophe@4.33.0
pnpm
pnpm add apostrophe@4.33.0

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 5.3

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

Weakness

CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization

The product performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design: Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries. Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
  • Architecture and Design: Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records. For example, a database may restrict access for medical records to a specific database user, but each record might only be intended to be accessible to the patient and the patient's doctor [REF-7].
  • Architecture and Design: Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid. For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
  • Architecture and Design: For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page. One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.
  • System Configuration, Installation: Use the access control capabilities of your operating system and server environment and define your access control lists accordingly. Use a "default deny" policy when defining these ACLs.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-86wm-68pq-5jwq
ApostropheCMS: Unauthenticated resource exhaustion via pre-auth aposBigUpload processing in @apostrophecms/import-export
High Also affects apostrophe
GHSA-653j-g8j7-gh54
ApostropheCMS: No Attempt Throttling on Authenticated Password-Change Endpoint Enables Unlimited Current-Password Guessing
Medium Also affects apostrophe
GHSA-vwwx-px9w-crrc
ApostropheCMS: Missing Authorization on Notification PATCH/DELETE Endpoints
Low Also affects apostrophe
GHSA-vmxh-77cw-65j7
ApostropheCMS: Authenticated Object-Level Authorization Bypass in exist-in-locale Reveals Restricted Localized Draft Identifiers
Medium Also affects apostrophe
GHSA-m2m5-rw3w-cwmj
ApostropheCMS: Client-side Prototype Pollution in apos.http.parseQuery leading to DOM-based XSS against authenticated users
Medium Also affects apostrophe
GHSA-gqh3-7856-rjjg
ApostropheCMS: :_id/locales REST route omits the public-API authorization gate its sibling read routes enforce (unauthenticated doc-existence + locale metadata disclosure)
Medium Also affects apostrophe
GHSA-hhvr-8m24-qqr3
ApostropheCMS: Cross-domain session token in URL confers session takeover
Medium Also affects apostrophe
GHSA-j5rq-xfvr-p969
ApostropheCMS: Authenticated projection-exclusion prototype-member deletion in @apostrophecms/db-connect causes process-wide denial of service
High Also affects apostrophe
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