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Mattermost ServerApplication · Mattermost

CVE-2023-2515

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.1.8 / 7.7.4 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Mattermost fails to restrict a user with permissions to edit other users and to create personal access tokens from elevating their privileges to system admin

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Mattermost contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where users granted permissions to edit other users AND create personal access tokens can elevate their own account privileges to system administrator level. This is a broken access control issue where the combination of these two permissions was not properly restricted from performing administrative actions.

MitigationUpdate Mattermost to the patched version and review user role assignments to ensure the combination of user edit and personal access token creation permissions is properly restricted from system admin capabilities.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Mattermost ServerApplication
Affected:< 7.1.8>= 7.2.0, < 7.7.4>= 7.8.0, < 7.8.3>= 7.9.0, < 7.9.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Mattermost Server version
    Run 'grep -i version /opt/mattermost/config/config.json' or access the Mattermost System Console > About > Mattermost Version to identify the installed version
    Affected if Version is less than 7.1.8, between 7.2.0-7.7.3, between 7.8.0-7.8.2, or between 7.9.0-7.9.1
  2. Identify roles with edit other users permission
    Navigate to System Console > User Management > Roles and review which roles have the 'edit_other_users' permission enabled; or query the Roles table in the database for roles containing this permission
    Affected if Any custom or default role besides system_admin has edit_other_users permission enabled
  3. Identify roles with personal access token creation permission
    Navigate to System Console > User Management > Roles and review which roles have the 'create_personal_access_token' permission enabled; or query the Roles table in the database for roles containing this permission
    Affected if Any role other than system_admin has create_personal_access_token permission enabled
  4. Check for users with combined vulnerable permissions
    Query the database to find users assigned to roles that have both edit_other_users and create_personal_access_token permissions, or manually review user role assignments in System Console > Users
    Affected if Any user is assigned to a role that includes both edit_other_users and create_personal_access_token permissions

The server is affected if the installed version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND any user account has both edit_other_users and create_personal_access_token permissions enabled through their role assignments.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.1.8 / 7.7.4 / 7.8.3 or later
Fixed in 7.1.87.7.47.8.3
Interim mitigation

Update Mattermost to the patched version and review user role assignments to ensure the combination of user edit and personal access token creation permissions is properly restricted from system admin capabilities.

Recommended fix High confidence

Mattermost Server 7.9.2 or later (latest stable 7.x release)

  1. 1. Back up your Mattermost Server database and configuration files
  2. 2. Ensure you have a rollback plan in case of issues
  3. 3. Download Mattermost Server version 7.9.2 or later from the official Mattermost downloads page
  4. 4. Stop the Mattermost Server service
  5. 5. Upgrade the Mattermost Server installation using the standard upgrade process for your deployment method (e.g., tar.gz, Docker, or package manager)
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the server version in the system console
  7. 7. Test that the privilege escalation vulnerability is fixed by verifying that users with edit users and create personal access token permissions can no longer elevate themselves to system admin
  8. 8. Restart the Mattermost Server service
Caveat Review Mattermost release notes for 7.9.2 for any breaking changes or deprecation notices before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Mattermost Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,840
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,544.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-2515 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data