Simple Machines Forum 2.1 prior to commit 4bf35cf and 3.0 prior to commit b4d23df contains a server-side request forgery vulnerability in the image proxy that allows authenticated attackers to trigger internal HTTP requests by embedding attacker-controlled URLs in BBCode image tags, which the proxy fetches without validating resolved destination IPs against private address ranges, loopback, or link-local addresses. Attackers can leverage SMF's automatic HMAC signature generation for any embedded image URL to obtain valid signed proxy requests targeting internal services such as cloud instance metadata endpoints, internal web applications, and container network services.

Simple Machines Forum 2.1 prior to 2.1.8 and 3.0 prior to 3.0 Alpha 5 contains an authorization bypass vulnerability in Sources/Actions/AttachmentApprove.php where a single-character operator error causes the permission check to always pass regardless of user permissions. An authenticated low-privileged user can approve, reject, or delete any pending attachments on any board without holding the required approve_posts permission, bypass moderation queues for their own uploads, and enumerate and delete other users' pending attachments.