CVE-2021-41163 RCE via malicious SNS subscription payload
Attackers can achieve remote code execution in Discourse by sending maliciously crafted SNS subscription payloads due to insufficient validation.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2021-41163?
CVE-2021-41163 is a critical code injection vulnerability in Discourse Discourse, published on 20 Oct 2021. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions maliciously crafted requests could lead to remote code execution. This resulted from a lack of validation in subscribe_url values. This issue is patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed versions of Discourse. To workaround the issue without updating, requests with a path starting /webhooks/aws path could be blocked at an upstream proxy.
Weakness: CWE-74
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-41163?
1 open source package ship an affected version, including discourse. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
discourse Bitnami | All versions | 2.7.9 |
Products include Discourse Discourse.
How do I fix CVE-2021-41163?
Upgrade discourse to 2.7.9 or later.
Upgrade, and never evaluate templates, expressions or code built from user input. More about Code injection.
Is CVE-2021-41163 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-41163 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Discourse Discourse
- CVE-2022-36066 Discourse vulnerable to RCE via admins uploading maliciously zipped file
- CVE-2022-39356 Discourse user account takeover via email and invite link
- CVE-2023-22468 Discourse vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting in local oneboxes
- CVE-2026-27934 Discourse leaks private topic title and post excerpt via user action API endpoint
- CVE-2025-48053 Discourse vulnerable to DoS via large URL payload in PM to a bot
Sources
Also known as BIT-discourse-2021-41163, GHSA-jcjx-pvpc-qgwq.