ApostropheCMS: publicApiProjection Bypass via `project` Query Builder in Piece-Type REST API

ApostropheCMS is an open-source Node.js content management system. Versions 4.28.0 and prior contain an authorization bypass vulnerability in the getRestQuery method of the @apostrophecms/piece-type module, where the method checks whether a MongoDB projection has already been set before applying the admin-configured publicApiProjection. An unauthenticated attacker can supply a project query parameter in the REST API request, which is processed by applyBuildersSafely before the permission check, pre-populating the projection state and causing the publicApiProjection to be skipped entirely. This allows disclosure of any field on publicly queryable documents that the administrator explicitly restricted from the public API, such as internal notes, draft content, or metadata. Exploitation is trivial, requiring only appending query parameters to a public URL with no authentication. This issue has been fixed in version 4.29.0.

Source published

15 Apr 2026 19:25:46 UTC

Source modified

15 Apr 2026 20:03:30 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

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CVSS 3.1 · 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N