CVE-2023-41042 Discourse DoS via remote theme assets
Attackers can cause denial of service by importing remote themes with excessive assets, requiring administrators to upgrade Discourse.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-41042?
CVE-2023-41042 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Discourse Discourse, published on 15 Sep 2023. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, 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, importing a remote theme loads their assets into memory without enforcing limits for file size or number of files. 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-2023-41042?
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-2023-41042?
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-2023-41042 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-41042 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-2023-41042, GHSA-2fq5-x3mm-v254.