Kirby's page creation API bypasses the changeStatus permission check via unfiltered isDraft parameter

Summary

Kirby is an open-source content management system. Kirby's user permissions control which user role is allowed to perform specific actions to content models in the CMS. These permissions are defined for each role in the user blueprint (`site/blueprints/users/...`). It is also possible to customize the permissions for each target model in the model blueprints (such as in `site/blueprints/pages/...`) using the `options` feature. The permissions and options together control the authorization of user actions. For pages, Kirby provides the `pages.create` and `pages.changeStatus` permissions (among others). Prior to versions 4.9.0 and 5.4.0, Kirby checked these permissions independently and only for the respective action. However the `changeStatus` permission didn't take effect on page creation. New pages are created as drafts by default and need to be published by changing the page status of an existing page draft. This is ensured when the page is created via the Kirby Panel. However the REST API allows to override the `isDraft` flag when creating a new page. This allowed authenticated attackers with the `pages.create` permission to immediately create published pages, bypassing the normal editorial workflow. The problem has been patched in Kirby 4.9.0 and Kirby 5.4.0. Kirby has added a check to the page creation rules that ensures that users without the `pages.changeStatus` permission cannot create published pages, only page drafts.

Timeline

1. Apr 24, 2026, 12:34 AM UTCCVE published
2. Apr 25, 2026, 1:41 AM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Apr 25, 2026, 1:41 AM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• getkirby kirby

  fixed in 4.9.0; From 5.0.0 · fixed in 5.4.0

• getkirby/cmsPackagist

  fixed in 4.9.0

• getkirby/cmsPackagist

  From 5.0.0 · fixed in 5.4.0

References 3