Executive brief
MantisBT is a popular open-source bug tracking system used by organizations to manage software projects and client billing. A vulnerability in its API allows users with basic update permissions to inject unauthorized time-tracking entries and reminders. This could lead to fraudulent billable hours being added to project reports, resulting in incorrect client invoices and corrupted project management data.
Technical details
An improper input validation vulnerability exists in the mc_issue_update SOAP and REST API endpoints of MantisBT. The application passes a user-supplied 'note_type' integer directly to the bugnote_add() function without verifying if the user has the required authorization for that specific note type. An attacker with 'UPDATER' access can exploit this to inject 'TIME_TRACKING' (note_type=2) or 'REMINDER' notes. If the attacker's access level meets the time tracking view threshold, they can successfully inject arbitrary billable hours into the system's database. The issue is fixed in version 2.28.4.
Affected products
- MantisBT MantisBT <= 2.28.3
Timeline
- 2026-07-15: advisory: GitHub Advisory GHSA-4vpf-w7qv-5h3q published
- 2026-07-15: patched: Fix committed in version 2.28.4