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DiscourseApplication

CVE-2023-32301

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-06-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.0.4 or later.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges 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 is an open source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.0.4 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta5 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, multiple duplicate topics could be created if topic embedding is enabled. This issue is patched in version 3.0.4 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta5 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches. As a workaround, disable topic embedding if it has been enabled.

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 confidence

When Discourse topic embedding is enabled, the system fails to properly deduplicate topics during creation, allowing multiple duplicate topics to be created instead of recognizing and merging them into a single existing topic. This is a logic/design flaw in the topic embedding feature's uniqueness validation.

MitigationUpgrade to Discourse version 3.0.4 (stable) or 3.1.0.beta5 or later, or temporarily disable topic embedding as a workaround until patching is possible.

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:< 3.0.4= 3.1.0

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
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 checks

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

  1. Check Discourse installed version
    Access the Discourse admin panel and navigate to /admin/about or run `git log -1 --format='%H %s'` in the Discourse root directory to determine the exact version installed.
    Affected if version is earlier than 3.0.4 or equals exactly 3.1.0
  2. Verify if topic embedding is enabled
    Navigate to Discourse admin panel, go to Settings > Embedding, and check if 'allow embeddable hosts' has any hosts configured, or inspect the site setting `embeddable_hosts` via the API or Rails console with `SiteSetting.embeddable_hosts`
    Affected if topic embedding is enabled with at least one embeddable host configured
  3. Check for duplicate topics in the database
    Connect to the Discourse database and run a SQL query to find topics with identical titles that were created in short succession: SELECT title, COUNT(*) FROM topics WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '7 days' GROUP BY title HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;
    Affected if multiple topics with identical titles exist, indicating the deduplication failure may have been exploited

You are affected if your Discourse version is < 3.0.4 or = 3.1.0 AND topic embedding is enabled with configured embeddable hosts.

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 3.0.4 or later
Fixed in 3.0.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Discourse version 3.0.4 (stable) or 3.1.0.beta5 or later, or temporarily disable topic embedding as a workaround until patching is possible.

Recommended fix High confidence

3.0.4 (stable branch) or 3.1.0.beta5 (beta/tests-passed branches)

  1. Back up your Discourse database and site settings before proceeding
  2. Ensure you have a recent backup of your application data
  3. Connect to your Discourse server via SSH
  4. If using the official Discourse Docker image, run `./launcher stop app` to stop the container
  5. Pull the latest Discourse image or fetch the specific version (3.0.4 for stable, 3.1.0.beta5 for beta)
  6. Run `./launcher rebuild app` to apply the update
  7. After the rebuild completes, verify the Discourse version at /admin/about
  8. Confirm topic embedding settings at /admin/plugins if previously enabled

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

Fix this in Discourse Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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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-2023-32301 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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