VulnerabilityPublished 14 Aug 2026Updated 17 Aug 2026

CVE-2026-72812: siyuan · Missing Authorization

Affects siyuanSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.9 Medium : upgrade to 3.7.4 when convenient.

Data as of 12 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

6.9Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 32% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 3.7.4

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: Low
Vulnerable system availability: Low
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact to the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the Vulnerable System are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 14 Aug 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 13 Nov 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade siyuan to 3.7.4.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
siyuan-notesiyuan	Affected <3.7.4	Fixed in 3.7.4

AI-suggested

If you cannot patch yet, restrict access to the /api/ref/refreshBacklink endpoint or implement additional access controls to prevent anonymous invocation.

Description

**CVE:** This vulnerability corresponds to [CVE-2026-72812](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72812). ### Summary The `/api/ref/refreshBacklink` endpoint is gated by `CheckAuth` only. Unlike its mutating siblings, it carries no `CheckAdminRole`, no `CheckReadonly`, and no inline reader-role guard so it falls through all three authorization mechanisms the codebase uses to protect write operations. A publish `RoleReader` or the anonymous account when `Publish.Auth.Enable` is `false` can invoke it, forcing the server to flush its pending write-transaction queue, scan all references globally, load and parse referencing trees from disk, and enqueue database writes. This violates the read-only invariant (it writes even in a globally read-only workspace), provides an unauthenticated resource-amplification/DoS primitive, and applies no per-object access check to the caller-supplied ID. ### Details **Route / auth tier.** `router.go`: `Handle("POST", "/api/ref/refreshBacklink", model.CheckAuth, refreshBacklink)`, `CheckAuth` only. `CheckAuth` admits `RoleReader`; the publish proxy forwards port-6808 traffic with a Reader JWT (anonymous account when publish auth is disabled). Anonymous/reader reachable. **Guard fall-through.** SiYuan protects write handlers with one of three mechanisms: route-level `CheckAdminRole` (AV/riff/repo/sync/setting/snippet/notebook mutations), route-level `CheckReadonly` (filetree/block/attr/tag mutations), or an inline `IsReadOnlyRoleContext` check (e.g. `updateEmbedBlock`, `updateRecentDoc*Time`). `refreshBacklink` has none of the three. **Write path reached.** `refreshBacklink` calls `model.RefreshBacklink(id)`: - `FlushTxQueue()` — forces the pending write-transaction queue to disk. - `refreshRefsByDefID(defID)` → `QueryRefsByDefID(defID)` (global scan with encrypted-box fallback loop) → `filesys.LoadTrees(rootIDs)` (disk read and Lute parse of every referencing tree) → `sql.UpdateRefsTreeQueue(tree)` (enqueues DB writes) → ref-count task update. The handler also does not consult `util.ReadOnly`, so it executes its writes even when the workspace is configured globally read-only. **No per-object authorization.** `defID` is attacker-controlled and receives no publish-access or ownership check, so a reader can force a reference reindex of any document, including publish-forbidden/unpublished ones (cross-scope). ### Proof of Concept Reproduced on a local instance (SiYuan running locally, publish mode enabled on port 6808, publish Basic Auth disabled), as an anonymous reader (no token): **Target endpoint executes the full write path:** ``` POST http://127.0.0.1:6808/api/ref/refreshBacklink {"id":"<any block id>"} ``` Returns `{"code":0,"msg":"","data":null}` HTTP 200 the handler ran to completion, flushing the transaction queue and enqueuing ref writes. **Controls: the guarded mutating siblings correctly reject the same anonymous session:** ``` POST http://127.0.0.1:6808/api/tag/renameTag → 403 (CheckAdminRole and CheckReadonly) POST http://127.0.0.1:6808/api/block/foldBlock → 403 POST http://127.0.0.1:6808/api/block/updateEmbedBlock → code 0 no-op (inline IsReadOnlyRoleContext blocks the write) ``` The 200-vs-403 contrast confirms `refreshBacklink` is reachable and executes where its siblings are blocked. ### Impact An anonymous reader (publish mode with auth disabled) or any publish `RoleReader` can: - **Bypass the read-only invariant:** trigger persistent server-side writes (transaction-queue flush and reference reindex), including in a workspace configured globally read-only. - **Amplify resource use without authentication:** each call forces a transaction flush, a global reference scan, and disk read and parse of every referencing tree, with an attacker-controlled `id` and no rate limiting, a DoS primitive. - **Act cross-scope:** `defID` receives no publish-access check, so a reader can force reindexing of documents outside their publish scope. This is an integrity-invariant violation and a resource-amplification vector, not data corruption or injection, the caller cannot control the content of the writes, only trigger them. Impact is integrity-low and availability-low; no confidentiality impact and no attacker-controlled data reaches storage. ### Suggested fix Apply the same guard its mutating siblings use, add `CheckReadonly` (and `CheckAdminRole` if reference refresh is intended to be an authenticated operation) to the route, or an inline `IsReadOnlyRoleContext` check consistent with `updateEmbedBlock`. The endpoint should also honor `util.ReadOnly` and apply a publish-access check to `defID` so a reader cannot force cross-scope reindexing. More broadly, the three-way guard strategy (route middleware vs. inline check vs. none) is what allowed this handler to receive no gate at all; a structural backstop, a role-scoped route group for the mutation surface would prevent recurrence.

Impact

An attacker can perform unauthorized persistent writes on the server by exploiting this endpoint without authentication. This bypasses read-only restrictions and may cause increased resource consumption due to amplified database operations. There is no indication of remote code execution or data disclosure from the provided data.

Summary

CVE-2026-72812 describes a missing authorization vulnerability in the SiYuan note-taking software prior to version 3.7.4. The issue exists in the /api/ref/refreshBacklink endpoint, which does not properly restrict access, allowing unauthenticated attackers to invoke it with arbitrary block IDs. This leads to flushing transaction queues, scanning all references globally, and enqueuing database writes. The vulnerability bypasses intended read-only protections and can be leveraged for resource amplification attacks against the server.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 14 Aug 2026, 12:31 UTC

Technical details

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