CVE-2022-31096
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedDiscourse is an open source discussion platform. Under certain conditions, a logged in user can redeem an invite with an email that either doesn't match the invite's email or does not adhere to the email domain restriction of an invite link. The impact of this flaw is aggravated when the invite has been configured to add the user that accepts the invite into restricted groups. Once a user has been incorrectly added to a restricted group, the user may then be able to view content which that are restricted to the respective group. Users are advised to upgrade to the current stable releases. There are no known workarounds to this issue.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA validation bypass in Discourse's invite redemption system allows a logged-in user to accept an invite with an email that either doesn't match the invite's intended email or violates the invite link's domain restrictions. When the invite is configured to add users to restricted groups, this flaw enables unauthorized access to group-restricted content.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 2.8.4= 2.9.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine Discourse versionAccess the admin dashboard at /admin/about or check the running container image tag /opt/discourse/version fileAffected if Version is 2.8.4 or lower, or exactly 2.9.0
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Identify active groups with restrictionsNavigate to /admin/groups and review groups to identify any that have 'who can message the group' set to 'only allow certain users' or have visibility set to 'staff' or 'members'Affected if Any groups exist that restrict membership access
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Check invite system configurationNavigate to /admin/site_settings/category/invite and review settings such as 'invite_link_max_redemptions_allowed' and 'invite_link_redirect'Affected if Invite links are enabled for group enrollment
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Audit recent invite redemptionsReview /admin/logs/staff_action_logs for recent 'invited_user' or 'associate_email' actions, paying special attention to invites that added users to groupsAffected if Invite redemptions exist that added users to restricted groups where the user's email did not match the invitee's original email
Your environment is affected if running Discourse version 2.8.4 or lower, or version 2.9.0, and you use the invite system to add users to groups with restricted access.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to the current stable release of Discourse to address the invite email validation bypass.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,752.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-31096 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-31096 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data