Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Prior to 4.5.10, 4.4.17, and 4.3.23, when using Ruby versions ol

Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub. Prior to 4.5.10, 4.4.17, and 4.3.23, when using Ruby versions older than 3.4, PrivateAddressCheck.private_address? returns false for IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses (::ffff:a.b.c.d) corresponding to some private IPv4 addresses, depending on Ruby version, this can include loopback, RFC1918 private networks, and link-local space. An attacker who controls DNS for any domain can publish an AAAA record with such a mapped address; any outbound HTTP fetch Mastodon performs against that hostname then opens a real TCP connection to the underlying IPv4 address, including 127.0.0.1 and cloud-metadata endpoints such as 169.254.169.254. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.5.10, 4.4.17, and 4.3.23.