CVE-2025-22601 Client Side Path Traversal using activate account route in Discourse
An attacker can trick users into modifying their own usernames via a crafted link in the activate-account route.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-22601?
CVE-2025-22601 is a low-severity path traversal vulnerability in Discourse Discourse, published on 4 Feb 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions an attacker can trick a target user to make changes to their own username via carefully crafted link using the `activate-account` route. This problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Weakness: CWE-22
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-22601?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Discourse Discourse.
How do I fix CVE-2025-22601?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-22601 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2025-22601 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-22601 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 GHSA-gvpp-v7mp-wxxw.