CVE-2023-23615
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. The embeddable comments can be exploited to create new topics as any user but without any clear title or content. This issue is patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed versions of Discourse. As a workaround, disable embeddable comments by deleting all embeddable hosts.
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 · moderate confidenceDiscourse's embeddable comments feature contains a validation flaw allowing unauthenticated or authenticated users to create new topics through the embed functionality without providing clear title or content. This bypasses normal topic creation requirements.
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<= 3.0.0= 1.1.0= 1.2.0= 1.3.0= 1.4.0= 1.5.0= 1.6.0= 1.7.0= 1.8.0= 1.9.0= 2.0.0= 2.1.0CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Discourse versionLocate the Discourse version number in the admin panel under /admin/about or via the API endpoint /about.jsonAffected if The installed version is 3.0.0 or lower, or matches any of the specific affected versions 1.1.0 through 2.1.0
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Verify embeddable comments feature statusAccess the Discourse admin panel and navigate to the Embedding settings section to determine if embeddable comments are enabledAffected if The embeddable comments feature is currently enabled in the system
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Inspect configured embeddable hostsIn the Discourse admin panel under Embedding > Embeddable Hosts, review the list of allowed hosts that can embed commentsAffected if One or more embeddable hosts are configured and active
You are affected if your Discourse version is 3.0.0 or lower (including specific versions 1.1.0 through 2.1.0) AND the embeddable comments feature with at least one embeddable host is enabled in the admin panel.
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.
dbcve · scopedApply the latest stable, beta, or tests-passed patch for Discourse. Alternatively, as a workaround, disable embeddable comments by removing all embeddable hosts from the Discourse admin panel.
latest stable release (or beta/tests-passed)
- Upgrade Discourse to the latest stable release (or beta/tests-passed version) which contains the fix for CVE-2023-23615
- Alternatively, as a configuration workaround: Navigate to Discourse admin settings and delete all embeddable hosts to disable the embeddable comments feature
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-23615 — 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-2023-23615 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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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.
- 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