CVE-2026-48485 Overview
CVE-2026-48485 affects Quest Bot, an open-source Discord bot maintained by the duck-organization project. Versions prior to 1.1.6 fail to suppress mentions when the /warns command prints stored warning reasons. A moderator can embed @everyone or @here inside a warning reason, then trigger the bot to render that reason later, producing a mass ping if the bot holds mention permissions. The flaw is classified under CWE-116: Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output. The maintainers shipped a fix in release 1.1.6.
Critical Impact
An authenticated moderator can abuse stored warning reasons to trigger unsolicited mass pings of every server member or every online member, disrupting Discord guilds that rely on Quest Bot for moderation.
Affected Products
- Quest Bot versions prior to 1.1.6
- Discord guilds running Quest Bot with mention permissions granted
- Deployments sourced from the duck-organization/questbot repository
Discovery Timeline
- 2026-06-12 - CVE-2026-48485 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2026-48485
Vulnerability Analysis
Quest Bot strips mention parsing when generating output for create, unban, unwarn, kick, mute, and unmute commands. The /warns command, which lists previously stored moderator warnings, omits this suppression step. When Quest Bot reads a stored reason from its data store and posts it in a channel, Discord parses any @everyone or @here token inside the message and issues the corresponding push notification.
The issue is a notification-channel abuse pattern rather than a remote code execution flaw. Exploitation requires a privileged Discord user with permission to issue warnings, and the bot must hold the Mention Everyone permission for the ping to fire. Impact is limited to confidentiality-neutral disruption: integrity and availability of moderation channels degrade while members receive spurious notifications.
Root Cause
The root cause is inconsistent application of Discord's allowed_mentions payload field. Patched code paths set allowed_mentions to suppress @everyone and role pings, but the /warns rendering path passes raw stored text to the message API. Stored warning reasons are treated as trusted output even though they originate from moderator input.
Attack Vector
A moderator first invokes the warning command and supplies a reason string containing @everyone or @here. The bot stores the reason verbatim. At any later time, the moderator or another user triggers /warns against the target user. Quest Bot retrieves the stored reason and posts it without mention suppression, causing Discord to deliver a ping to every server member or every online member. No code execution or exploitation tooling is required beyond standard Discord client interactions.
No public proof-of-concept code has been published. See the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-xjm4-8ggw-8jwf for the maintainer write-up.
Detection Methods for CVE-2026-48485
Indicators of Compromise
- Discord audit log entries showing /warns command invocations followed by mass-mention notifications in the same channel
- Warning records in Quest Bot storage where the reason field contains the substrings @everyone or @here
- Unexpected spikes in Discord push notifications correlated with moderator activity
Detection Strategies
- Query Quest Bot's warning database or JSON store for reason fields containing @everyone, @here, or <@& role mention tokens
- Review Discord server audit logs for moderator-issued warnings followed by /warns executions within short time windows
- Monitor Quest Bot process logs for messages dispatched through the /warns handler containing mention tokens
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable Discord server-side logging for all bot-issued messages and correlate against moderator command history
- Alert on any bot message containing @everyone or @here that was not authored by a server administrator
- Track Quest Bot version strings across deployments to identify hosts still running releases earlier than 1.1.6
How to Mitigate CVE-2026-48485
Immediate Actions Required
- Upgrade Quest Bot to version 1.1.6 or later using the official release at GitHub QuestBot Release v1.1.6
- Audit existing warning records and remove or sanitize any reasons containing @everyone, @here, or role mention tokens
- Revoke the Mention Everyone permission from the Quest Bot role until the upgrade is complete
Patch Information
The maintainers released Quest Bot 1.1.6 to address CVE-2026-48485. The patch extends mention suppression to the /warns output path so stored reasons can no longer trigger Discord notifications. Patch details and release artifacts are available in the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-xjm4-8ggw-8jwf.
Workarounds
- Remove the Mention Everyone permission from the Quest Bot role in Discord server settings until patching is feasible
- Restrict warning issuance to a smaller trusted moderator subset and review reason content before submission
- Manually purge stored warnings containing mention tokens from the bot's persistent storage
# Upgrade Quest Bot to the patched release
git fetch --tags
git checkout questbot-v1.1.6
npm install --production
pm2 restart questbot
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
