# CVE-2022-39270: Arbitrary HTML injection in table-of-contents theme component in DiscoTOC

> Users with sufficient trust levels can inject arbitrary HTML into topic pages via the DiscoTOC component, potentially leading to XSS attacks.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 6 Oct 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-m44p-w923-w32h

## What is CVE-2022-39270?

CVE-2022-39270 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in discourse DiscoTOC, published on 6 Oct 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

DiscoTOC is a Discourse theme component that generates a table of contents for topics. Users that can create topics in TOC-enabled categories (and have sufficient trust level - configured in component's settings) are able to inject arbitrary HTML on that topic's page. The issue has been fixed on the `main` branch. Admins can update the theme component through the admin UI (Customize -> Themes -> Components -> DiscoTOC -> Check for Updates). Alternatively, admins can temporarily disable the DiscoTOC theme component.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-39270?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Discourse Discotoc.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-39270?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-39270 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-39270 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-39270 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-39270 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-39270 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in discourse DiscoTOC, published on 6 Oct 2022. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-39270 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: discourse DiscoTOC. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39270/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39270/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-39270
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-39270
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-39270

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39270/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.