CVE-2026-54740Lemmy: Lower-ranked federated moderator can remove higher-ranked moderators

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.

CVSS

6.5 MEDIUM (v3.1, CNA)CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Weakness (CWE)

CWE-862

Known exploited

Not in CISA's KEV catalog

EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)

Not loaded for this CVE

Assigned by

GitHub_M

NVD analysis

Deferred

Record last updated

Aug 20, 2026

First seen by InfoSec Signals

Oct 9, 2026

The CVE record on cve.org · NVD's entry

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