Executive brief
Chatwoot is a customer engagement and helpdesk platform. Prior to version 4.9.0, authenticated account administrators could transfer critical resources (portals, automation rules, macros, and Twilio channels) to arbitrary other customer accounts by manipulating API parameters. This breaks the isolation between customer accounts and could allow one customer to steal or sabotage another customer's configurations and data.
Technical details
The vulnerability is a privilege escalation and broken access control flaw in Chatwoot's resource management controllers. The root cause is that the account_id parameter was included in Rails strong parameters for the portals, automation rules, macros, and Twilio channels controllers, allowing an authenticated administrator to modify the account_id field during resource updates. An authenticated attacker with admin privileges can submit crafted API requests with a modified account_id to transfer resources between accounts without authorization. The fix, released in version 4.9.0, removes the account_id parameter from the permitted strong parameters in the four affected controllers, preventing unauthorized account transfers.
Affected products
- Chatwoot Chatwoot prior to 4.9.0
Timeline
- 2026-08-10: disclosed
- 2025-12-20: patched: Fix merged in version 4.9.0 via commit 86da3f7