Baileys has message upsert / hist sync spoofing and app state corruption when using maliciously crafted protocolMessage payload

published 2026-06-10 4 mo ago modified 2026-09-10 59 d ago also GHSA-qvv5-jq5g-4cgg , EUVD-2026-52440

cvss: 9.3; version 4.0, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 12%
public exploits: 0; none known

Baileys is a cocket-based TS/JavaScript API for WhatsApp Web. In versions prior to both 6.7.22 and 7.0.0-rc12, any Baileys session can be sent a malicious payload via the placeholderResendMessage and trigger a fake messages.upsert event with a fake message key and payload. This allows anyone to spoof messages. The same exploit also allows an attacker to corrupt the app state sync system by sending fake key shares, and also allows for history sync spoofing which also serves the same problem, injecting fake previous context or "on-demand" sync. This issue has been fixed in versions 6.7.22 and 7.0.0-rc12.

Patch / fix

fixed in 2 links 1

npm baileys 6.7.22, 7.0.0-rc12
npm @whiskeysockets/baileys 6.7.22, 7.0.0-rc12

github.com/WhiskeySockets/Baileys@3beb08e commit

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: partial
Assessed: 3 mo ago (2026-08-04)

Exploit prediction

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	4.0	9.3	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA	4.0	9.3	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
npm	baileys	<6.7.22 >=7.0.0-rc.1, <7.0.0-rc12	6.7.22 7.0.0-rc12
npm	@whiskeysockets/baileys	<6.7.22 >=7.0.0-rc.1, <7.0.0-rc12	6.7.22 7.0.0-rc12

Affected products

WhiskeySockets Baileys
WhiskeySockets @whiskeysockets/baileys

Classification

Weakness

CWE-290 Authentication Bypass by Spoofing
CWE-345 Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity
CWE-346 Origin Validation Error

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary