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DiscourseApplication

CVE-2022-37458

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-09-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.8.7 or later.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
Discourse through 2.8.7 allows admins to send invitations to arbitrary email addresses at an unlimited rate.

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 confidence

Discourse through version 2.8.7 contains a rate limiting bypass in its invitation system that allows authenticated administrators to send invitations to any email address without any rate restrictions, potentially enabling spam or email enumeration attacks.

MitigationUpgrade Discourse to version 2.8.8 or later which contains the rate limiting fix; alternatively, implement application-layer rate limiting at the web server or WAF level to constrain invitation submission rates.

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
DiscourseApplication
Affected:<= 2.8.7

CVSS 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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed Discourse version
    Access the Discourse admin panel (/admin) and navigate to /about or use the Discourse doctor command (./launcher enter app discourse Doctor) to retrieve the current version number
    Affected if The installed version is 2.8.7 or earlier (any version <= 2.8.7)
  2. Verify invitation system is enabled
    In the Discourse admin panel, go to Settings > Email > and check if 'enable_invites' or similar invitation-related settings are turned on. Alternatively, check the discourse_invites table in the database for recent invite records
    Affected if The invitation feature is enabled and the Discourse version is <= 2.8.7
  3. Confirm administrator account access
    Review user accounts in /admin/users/list/active to identify accounts with admin privileges. The vulnerability requires an authenticated administrator account
    Affected if There are active administrator accounts and the Discourse version is <= 2.8.7 with invitations enabled
  4. Inspect invitation rate limiting configuration
    In Discourse admin settings, search for rate limit or throttle related settings under the 'rate limits' or 'throttling' sections. Check /admin/site_settings/category/all_results?filter=rate for rate limiting parameters
    Affected if No explicit rate limits are configured for invitations and the Discourse version is <= 2.8.7

A user is affected if they are running any Discourse version 2.8.7 or earlier with the invitation system enabled, as the rate limiting bypass allows unrestricted invitation submission by administrators.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.8.7
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Discourse to version 2.8.8 or later which contains the rate limiting fix; alternatively, implement application-layer rate limiting at the web server or WAF level to constrain invitation submission rates.

Recommended fix High confidence

Discourse 2.8.8 or later

  1. 1. Backup your Discourse instance and database before performing any upgrade.
  2. 2. Ensure you have SSH access to the server hosting your Discourse installation.
  3. 3. Run the Discourse upgrade command (typically './launcher rebuild app' or use the admin dashboard upgrade feature).
  4. 4. After upgrade, verify the version number matches or exceeds 2.8.8.
  5. 5. Test that the admin invitation functionality works correctly with appropriate rate limiting in place.
Caveat Standard Discourse upgrades typically include breaking changes; review the release notes for 2.8.8 for any migration or configuration requirements

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Discourse Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,570
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,512.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-37458 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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