CVE-2023-38706 Discourse vulnerable to DoS via drafts
A malicious user can exhaust server resources by creating unlimited drafts with long keys, causing denial of service in Discourse.
- 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-2023-38706?
CVE-2023-38706 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Discourse Discourse, published on 15 Sep 2023. 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. Prior to version 3.1.1 of the `stable` branch and version 3.2.0.beta1 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, a malicious user can create an unlimited number of drafts with very long draft keys which may end up exhausting the resources on the server. The issue is patched in version 3.1.1 of the `stable` branch and version 3.2.0.beta1 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches. There are no known workarounds.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-38706?
1 open source package ship an affected version, including discourse. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
discourse Bitnami | All versions | 3.1.1 |
Products include Discourse Discourse.
How do I fix CVE-2023-38706?
Upgrade discourse to 3.1.1 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-2023-38706 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-38706 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-2023-38706, GHSA-7wpp-4pqg-gvp8.