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DiscourseApplication

CVE-2024-55948

HIGH · 8.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.3.2 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. In affected versions an attacker can make craft an XHR request to poison the anonymous cache (for example, the cache may have a response with missing preloaded data). This issue only affects anonymous visitors of the site. This problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable anonymous cache by setting the `DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE` environment variable to a non-empty value.

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

In affected versions of Discourse, an attacker can craft malicious XHR requests to poison the anonymous user cache. This cache poisoning can result in responses with missing preloaded data, potentially leading to incorrect or incomplete content being served to anonymous visitors.

MitigationUpgrade to the latest patched version of Discourse, or if unable to upgrade, set the DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE environment variable to a non-empty value to disable the vulnerable anonymous cache.

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

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
High
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L

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 /admin/about or check the VERSION file in the Discourse installation directory. Alternatively, run `git log -1 --format='%H %s'` in the Discourse directory.
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 3.3.2
  2. Check anonymous cache configuration
    Inspect the environment variables on the server where Discourse is deployed. Look for the DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE variable by running `echo $DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE` or checking the app's environment configuration files.
    Affected if DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE is not set or is set to an empty value (meaning the anonymous cache is enabled)
  3. Verify anonymous traffic is being served
    Make an unauthenticated (anonymous) request to the Discourse site and inspect the response headers and body for preloaded data. Check if the site serves content to unauthenticated users.
    Affected if Anonymous users can access the site and receive responses with preloaded data (indicating the vulnerable cache is in use)

A system is affected if it runs Discourse version below 3.3.2 AND has the anonymous cache enabled (DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE is not set or is empty), allowing unauthenticated visitors to potentially receive incorrect or incomplete content.

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 or later
Fixed in 3.3.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to the latest patched version of Discourse, or if unable to upgrade, set the DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE environment variable to a non-empty value to disable the vulnerable anonymous cache.

Recommended fix High confidence

Discourse 3.3.2 or latest stable release

  1. 1. Back up your Discourse instance before performing any upgrade
  2. 2. Upgrade Discourse to version 3.3.2 or later
  3. 3. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the Discourse admin panel
  4. 4. If unable to upgrade immediately, set the environment variable DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE to a non-empty value as a temporary mitigation
Caveat Standard Discourse upgrade considerations apply - review release notes for any breaking changes between your current version and 3.3.2

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

Fix this in Discourse Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

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

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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-2024-55948 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