DiscourseApplication

CVE-2026-34154

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2026.1.4 / 2026.3.1 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. In versions prior to 2026.1.4, 2026.3.1, 2026.4.1 and 2026.5.0-latest.1, a vulnerability in the discourse-subscriptions plugin allows users to gain access to subscription-gated groups without completing payment. This issue has been fixed in versions 2026.1.4, 2026.3.1, 2026.4.1 and 2026.5.0-latest.1.

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

The discourse-subscriptions plugin contains an authorization bypass vulnerability where users can access subscription-gated groups without completing payment. This is a broken access control issue in the group membership logic that should enforce payment verification before granting group access.

MitigationUpgrade Discourse to versions 2026.1.4, 2026.3.1, 2026.4.1, or 2026.5.0-latest.1 which contain the fix for this vulnerability. Verify that subscription-gated groups properly enforce payment requirements after upgrading.

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:>= 2026.1.0, < 2026.1.4>= 2026.3.0, < 2026.3.1>= 2026.4.0, < 2026.4.1= 2026.5.0

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
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/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. Verify discourse-subscriptions plugin is enabled
    Check your Discourse admin panel under Plugins or examine the plugin configuration files to confirm the discourse-subscriptions plugin is installed and active
    Affected if The plugin is installed and enabled on the instance
  2. Determine installed Discourse version
    Access your Discourse admin dashboard and locate the version information, or check the version file in your Discourse installation directory
    Affected if The installed version falls within one of these ranges: >= 2026.1.0 and < 2026.1.4, >= 2026.3.0 and < 2026.3.1, >= 2026.4.0 and < 2026.4.1, or equals 2026.5.0
  3. Identify subscription-gated groups
    Review your Discourse group settings in the admin panel to see which groups are configured as subscription-gated (groups that require payment to access)
    Affected if There are groups configured that require a paid subscription for membership
  4. Check user membership in subscription-gated groups
    Examine user group memberships, particularly for authenticated users who may have been added to subscription-gated groups without proper payment verification
    Affected if Users have access to subscription-gated groups and there is no record of completed payment for those memberships

You are affected if the discourse-subscriptions plugin is enabled AND your Discourse version is one of the affected versions AND you have subscription-gated groups configured in your environment.

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 2026.1.4 / 2026.3.1 / 2026.4.1 or later
Fixed in 2026.1.42026.3.12026.4.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Discourse to versions 2026.1.4, 2026.3.1, 2026.4.1, or 2026.5.0-latest.1 which contain the fix for this vulnerability. Verify that subscription-gated groups properly enforce payment requirements after upgrading.

Recommended fix High confidence

2026.5.0-latest.1

  1. Upgrade Discourse to version 2026.5.0-latest.1 (or 2026.1.4, 2026.3.1, or 2026.4.1 depending on your current branch)

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

Fix this in Discourse Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,760
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-34154 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-34154 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