Vulnerability-Lookup

Vulnerability from bitnami_vulndb

Published

2026-03-03 13:29

Modified

2026-09-08 08:34

Summary

Discourse Vulnerable to Unauthorized Topic Creation in Staff-Only Categories via Topic Timer publish_to_category

Details

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, TL4 users can publish topics into staff-only categories via the publish_to_category topic timer, bypassing authorization checks. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

JSON

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{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Bitnami",
        "name": "discourse",
        "purl": "pkg:bitnami/discourse"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2025.12.2"
            },
            {
              "introduced": "2026.1.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "2026.1.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "SEMVER"
        }
      ],
      "severity": [
        {
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/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",
          "type": "CVSS_V4"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-28227"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cpes": [
      "cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
    ],
    "severity": "Low"
  },
  "details": "Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, TL4 users can publish topics into staff-only categories via the `publish_to_category` topic timer, bypassing authorization checks. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.",
  "id": "BIT-discourse-2026-28227",
  "modified": "2026-09-08T08:34:36.952Z",
  "published": "2026-03-03T13:29:32.408Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-m49w-78mh-87jp"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-28227"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.6.2",
  "summary": "Discourse Vulnerable to Unauthorized Topic Creation in Staff-Only Categories via Topic Timer publish_to_category"
}

CVE-2026-28227 (GCVE-0-2026-28227)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-02-26 21:27 – Updated: 2026-03-03 14:44

Title

Discourse Vulnerable to Unauthorized Topic Creation in Staff-Only Categories via Topic Timer publish_to_category

Summary

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, TL4 users can publish topics into staff-only categories via the `publish_to_category` topic timer, bypassing authorization checks. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Severity

1.2 (Low)


                        
                          CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: yes Technical Impact: partial

CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)

Decision recorded 2026-03-03 14:44 UTC

CWE

CWE-863 - Incorrect Authorization

Assigner

GitHub_M mitre root

References

1 reference

URL	Tags
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/a…	x_refsource_CONFIRM

Impacted products

1 product

Vendor	Product	Version
discourse	discourse	Affected: < 2025.12.2 Affected: >= 2026.1.0-latest, < 2026.1.1 Affected: >= 2026.2.0-latest, < 2026.2.0

Show details on NVD website

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "containers": {
    "adp": [
      {
        "metrics": [
          {
            "other": {
              "content": {
                "id": "CVE-2026-28227",
                "options": [
                  {
                    "Exploitation": "none"
                  },
                  {
                    "Automatable": "yes"
                  },
                  {
                    "Technical Impact": "partial"
                  }
                ],
                "role": "CISA Coordinator",
                "timestamp": "2026-03-03T14:44:19.340088Z",
                "version": "2.0.3"
              },
              "type": "ssvc"
            }
          }
        ],
        "providerMetadata": {
          "dateUpdated": "2026-03-03T14:44:26.448Z",
          "orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
          "shortName": "CISA-ADP"
        },
        "title": "CISA ADP Vulnrichment"
      }
    ],
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "product": "discourse",
          "vendor": "discourse",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "\u003c 2025.12.2"
            },
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "\u003e= 2026.1.0-latest, \u003c 2026.1.1"
            },
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "\u003e= 2026.2.0-latest, \u003c 2026.2.0"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, TL4 users can publish topics into staff-only categories via the `publish_to_category` topic timer, bypassing authorization checks. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV4_0": {
            "attackComplexity": "LOW",
            "attackRequirements": "NONE",
            "attackVector": "NETWORK",
            "baseScore": 1.2,
            "baseSeverity": "LOW",
            "privilegesRequired": "HIGH",
            "subAvailabilityImpact": "NONE",
            "subConfidentialityImpact": "NONE",
            "subIntegrityImpact": "NONE",
            "userInteraction": "NONE",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U",
            "version": "4.0",
            "vulnAvailabilityImpact": "NONE",
            "vulnConfidentialityImpact": "NONE",
            "vulnIntegrityImpact": "LOW"
          }
        }
      ],
      "problemTypes": [
        {
          "descriptions": [
            {
              "cweId": "CWE-863",
              "description": "CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization",
              "lang": "en",
              "type": "CWE"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-02-26T21:27:38.926Z",
        "orgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
        "shortName": "GitHub_M"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "name": "https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-m49w-78mh-87jp",
          "tags": [
            "x_refsource_CONFIRM"
          ],
          "url": "https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-m49w-78mh-87jp"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "advisory": "GHSA-m49w-78mh-87jp",
        "discovery": "UNKNOWN"
      },
      "title": "Discourse Vulnerable to Unauthorized Topic Creation in Staff-Only Categories via Topic Timer publish_to_category"
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
    "assignerShortName": "GitHub_M",
    "cveId": "CVE-2026-28227",
    "datePublished": "2026-02-26T21:27:38.926Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-02-25T15:28:40.651Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-03-03T14:44:26.448Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.2"
}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.

The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.

Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.