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DiscourseApplication

CVE-2024-45051

HIGH · 8.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-10-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.3.2 / 3.4.0 or later.
See remediation →
91/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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 platform for community discussion. A maliciously crafted email address could allow an attacker to bypass domain-based restrictions and gain access to private sites, categories and/or groups. This issue has been patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed version of Discourse. All users area are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

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

Discourse fails to properly validate maliciously crafted email addresses, allowing attackers to bypass domain-based restrictions and gain unauthorized access to private sites, categories, and groups through improper input sanitization in the email validation logic.

MitigationUpgrade to the latest stable, beta, or tests-passed version of Discourse where this vulnerability has been patched. No workarounds exist.

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:< 3.3.2< 3.4.0= 3.4.0

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
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 in admin panel
    Log into the Discourse admin panel and navigate to /admin/about or check the footer of any admin page for the version number
    Affected if The displayed version is less than 3.3.2, less than 3.4.0, or exactly 3.4.0
  2. Check Discourse version via command line
    Access the Discourse server and run `cd /var/discourse && git describe --tags` or check the version file if present in the installation directory
    Affected if The version returned is less than 3.3.2, less than 3.4.0, or exactly 3.4.0
  3. Verify domain-based restrictions are in use
    In the admin panel, navigate to /admin/site_settings/category/email and check if settings like "email domain whitelist," "email domain blacklist," or "hide email domain groups" are configured with specific domains
    Affected if Domain-based email restrictions are configured and the Discourse version falls within the affected ranges

If the installed Discourse version is 3.3.0, 3.3.1, or 3.4.0, and the site uses email domain restrictions for access control, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.

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 3.3.2 / 3.4.0 or later
Fixed in 3.3.23.4.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to the latest stable, beta, or tests-passed version of Discourse where this vulnerability has been patched. No workarounds exist.

Recommended fix High confidence

Latest stable Discourse version (> 3.4.0, e.g., 3.4.1 or later)

  1. Identify current Discourse version by checking the admin dashboard or running `git log` in the Discourse directory
  2. Backup the Discourse database and application files before upgrading
  3. For Docker-based installations: run `cd /var/discourse && ./launcher rebuild app` to fetch and apply the latest stable version
  4. For source installations: run `git pull origin stable` and then restart the Discourse application
  5. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the Discourse version in the admin dashboard
  6. Test that email-based domain restrictions are functioning correctly after the upgrade

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

Fix this in Discourse Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,656.

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-2024-45051 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