CVE-2023-38684 Discourse vulnerable to ossible DDoS due to unbounded limits in various controller actions
Attackers can cause server resource exhaustion and denial of service by sending unbounded limit parameters in controller actions.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-38684?
CVE-2023-38684 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Discourse Discourse, published on 28 Jul 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.0.6 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta7 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, in multiple controller actions, Discourse accepts limit params but does not impose any upper bound on the values being accepted. Without an upper bound, the software may allow arbitrary users to generate DB queries which may end up exhausting the resources on the server. The issue is patched in version 3.0.6 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta7 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-38684?
1 open source package ship an affected version, including discourse. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
discourse Bitnami | All versions | 3.0.6 |
Products include Discourse Discourse.
How do I fix CVE-2023-38684?
Upgrade discourse to 3.0.6 or later.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2023-38684 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-38684 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-2023-38684, GHSA-ff7g-xv79-hgmf.