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DiscourseApplication

CVE-2023-22468

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-01-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.8.13 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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 is an open source platform for community discussion. Versions prior to 2.8.13 (stable), 3.0.0.beta16 (beta) and 3.0.0beta16 (tests-passed), are vulnerable to cross-site Scripting. A maliciously crafted URL can be included in a post to carry out cross-site scripting attacks on sites with disabled or overly permissive CSP (Content Security Policy). Discourse's default CSP prevents this vulnerability. This vulnerability is patched in versions 2.8.13 (stable), 3.0.0.beta16 (beta) and 3.0.0beta16 (tests-passed). As a workaround, enable and/or restore your site's CSP to the default one provided with Discourse.

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 versions prior to 2.8.13 (stable), 3.0.0.beta16 (beta), and 3.0.0beta16 (tests-passed) contain a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability where maliciously crafted URLs embedded in posts can execute arbitrary JavaScript, but only on instances where Content Security Policy (CSP) is disabled or configured too permissively.

MitigationUpgrade Discourse to version 2.8.13 (stable), 3.0.0.beta16 (beta), or 3.0.0beta16 (tests-passed), or ensure Content Security Policy is enabled and set to Discourse's default configuration.

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:< 2.8.13= 2.9.0= 3.0.0

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
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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 checks

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

  1. Check Discourse version
    Access the Discourse admin panel and navigate to /about or run `git log -1 --format='%H %s'` in the Discourse installation directory to identify the installed version
    Affected if The installed version is less than 2.8.13 (stable), or is exactly 2.9.0, or is exactly 3.0.0
  2. Verify Content Security Policy status
    Navigate to Discourse admin panel, go to Settings > Security, and inspect the 'content_security_policy' setting. Alternatively, check the app.yml configuration file for content_security_policy directives
    Affected if Content Security Policy is disabled entirely or has custom directives that relax the default restrictions on script sources
  3. Confirm CSP header configuration
    Review the site configuration for any custom CSP headers that override Discourse's default policy, particularly looking for 'unsafe-inline' or overly broad 'script-src' allowances
    Affected if CSP headers allow inline scripts or permit scripts from untrusted domains

A user is affected if their Discourse installation matches any of the vulnerable versions AND Content Security Policy is either disabled or configured with permissive settings that allow arbitrary script execution.

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 2.8.13 or later
Fixed in 2.8.13
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Discourse to version 2.8.13 (stable), 3.0.0.beta16 (beta), or 3.0.0beta16 (tests-passed), or ensure Content Security Policy is enabled and set to Discourse's default configuration.

Recommended fix High confidence

Discourse 2.8.13 (stable) or 3.0.0.beta16+/3.0.0beta16+ (beta/tests-passed branches)

  1. 1. Back up your Discourse instance database and any custom configurations
  2. 2. Stop the Discourse application
  3. 3. Update Discourse to version 2.8.13 or later (stable) using your installation method (e.g., './launcher rebuild app')
  4. 4. Verify the upgrade completed successfully
  5. 5. Restart the Discourse application
  6. 6. Confirm the application is functioning normally

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
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,328.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2023-22468 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