CVE-2023-48297
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 a platform for community discussion. The message serializer uses the full list of expanded chat mentions (@all and @here) which can lead to a very long array of users. This issue was patched in versions 3.1.4 and beta 3.2.0.beta5.
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 confidenceThe Discourse message serializer expands chat mentions (@all and @here) to include the full list of all users in the channel, creating a very large array. This can cause performance degradation and potential resource exhaustion when serializing messages in communities with many users.
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< 3.1.4= 3.2.0CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed Discourse versionAccess the Rails console or admin panel and run: Discourse::VERSION::STRING or check /admin/about in the web interfaceAffected if The version displayed is less than 3.1.4 or equals 3.2.0 exactly
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Confirm Chat feature is enabledNavigate to Admin > Site Settings and search for 'chat' or check if the chat plugin is active in the plugins listAffected if Chat functionality is enabled and users can post in chat channels
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Verify chat mention serialization behaviorInspect the message serializer code in the Discourse source, specifically looking for chat mention expansion logic that expands @all and @here to user arraysAffected if The serializer expands mentions to full user arrays rather than using references or limits
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Monitor for large serialized message payloadsCheck serialized chat message sizes in the database or application logs when messages containing @all or @here are postedAffected if Messages containing @all or @here produce unusually large serialized payloads compared to other mentions
A user is affected if their Discourse version is < 3.1.4 or = 3.2.0 AND the chat feature is enabled with messages using @all or @here mentions being processed by the serializer.
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 · scoped3.1.4
Upgrade Discourse to version 3.1.4 or beta 3.2.0.beta5 or later, which contains the patch for this vulnerability.
Discourse 3.1.4 (stable) or 3.2.0.beta5 (beta) or later
- Back up your Discourse instance and database before upgrading
- Upgrade Discourse to version 3.1.4 or later for stable releases
- If using beta, upgrade to version 3.2.0.beta5 or later
- Verify the upgrade completed successfully
- Test chat functionality to confirm the mention serialization issue is resolved
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 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 $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-48297 — 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-2023-48297 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