CVE-2022-21684 User can bypass approval when invited to Discourse
Invited users can bypass approval requirements to access Discourse forums with full privileges before being approved.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2022-21684?
CVE-2022-21684 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Discourse Discourse, published on 13 Jan 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Versions prior to 2.7.13 in `stable`, 2.8.0.beta11 in `beta`, and 2.8.0.beta11 in `tests-passed` allow some users to log in to a community before they should be able to do so. A user invited via email to a forum with `must_approve_users` enabled is going to be automatically logged in, bypassing the check that does not allow unapproved users to sign in. They will be able to do everything an approved user can do. If they logout, they cannot log back in. This issue is patched in the `stable` version 2.7.13, `beta` version 2.8.0.beta11, and `tests-passed` version 2.8.0.beta11. One may disable invites as a workaround. Administrators can increase `min_trust_level_to_allow_invite` to reduce the attack surface to more trusted users.
Weakness: CWE-287
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-21684?
1 open source package ship an affected version, including discourse. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
discourse Bitnami | All versions | 2.7.13 |
Products include Discourse Discourse.
How do I fix CVE-2022-21684?
Upgrade discourse to 2.7.13 or later.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2022-21684 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-21684 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Discourse Discourse
- CVE-2021-41163 RCE via malicious SNS subscription payload
- 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
Sources
Also known as BIT-discourse-2022-21684, GHSA-p63q-jp48-h8xh.