CVE-2026-54740

Medium

Description

Lemmy is a link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Prior to 0.19.19 and 1.0.0-alpha.18, a lower-ranked remote moderator can remove a higher-ranked moderator by sending a signed ActivityPub Remove activity to the target instance. The local API uses LocalUser::is_higher_mod_or_admin_check to enforce moderator rank, but CollectionRemove::verify in crates/apub/activities/src/community/collection_remove.rs only calls verify_mod_action. CollectionRemove::receive dereferences self.object as an ApubPerson, creates a CommunityModeratorForm, and calls CommunityActions::leave without checking that the actor outranks the moderator identified by the object field. In communities with federated moderators, a junior moderator can therefore strip senior moderators from the community moderator list even though the local API rejects the same action. This issue is fixed in versions 0.19.19 and 1.0.0-alpha.18.

SeverityMedium
CVSS6.5
Exploit probability—
ProductLemmy
PublishedAug 19, 2026
First seenAug 19, 2026

How to fix

Sources list no fixed version or patch link for this vulnerability.

Affected products

ProductAffected versionsFixed in
LemmyNet lemmy< 0.19.19, >= 1.0.0-alpha.0, < 1.0.0-alpha.18—

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