CVE-2024-55948 Anonymous cache poisoning via XHR requests in Discourse
Attackers can poison the anonymous cache via crafted XHR requests, potentially serving incorrect or missing data to anonymous visitors.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2024-55948?
CVE-2024-55948 is a high-severity vulnerability in Discourse Discourse, published on 4 Feb 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions an attacker can make craft an XHR request to poison the anonymous cache (for example, the cache may have a response with missing preloaded data). This issue only affects anonymous visitors of the site. This problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable anonymous cache by setting the `DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE` environment variable to a non-empty value.
Weakness: CWE-346
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-55948?
1 open source package ship an affected version, including discourse. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
discourse Bitnami | All versions | 3.3.2 |
Products include Discourse Discourse.
How do I fix CVE-2024-55948?
Upgrade discourse to 3.3.2 or later.
Is CVE-2024-55948 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-55948 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-2024-55948, GHSA-2352-252q-qc82.