Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, TL4 users can publish topics into staff-only categories via the `publish_to_category` topic timer, bypassing authorization checks. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, an improper authorization check in the topic management logic allows authenticated users to modify privileged attributes of their topics. By manipulating specific parameters in a PUT or POST request, a regular user can elevate a topic’s status to a site-wide notice or banner, bypassing intended administrative restrictions. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. There are no practical workarounds to prevent this behavior other than applying the security patch. Administrators concerned about unauthorized promotions should audit recent changes to site banners and global notices until the fix is deployed.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, fail-open access control in Data Explorer plugin allows any authenticated user to execute SQL queries that have no explicit group assignments, including built-in system queries. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. As a workaround, either explicitly set group permissions on each Data Explorer query that doesn't have permissions, or disable discourse-data-explorer plugin.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, a user full name can be evaluated as raw HTML when the following settings are set: `display_name_on_posts` => true; and `prioritize_username_in_ux` => false. Editing a post of a malicious user would trigger an XSS. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, moderators could export user Chat DMs via the CSV export endpoint by exploiting an overly permissive allowlist in `can_export_entity?`. The method allowed moderators to export any entity not explicitly blocked instead of restricting to an explicit allowlist. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, DM communication-preference bypass when adding members via `Chat::AddUsersToChannel` — a user could add targets who have blocked/ignored/muted them to an existing DM channel, bypassing per-recipient PM restrictions that are enforced during DM channel creation. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, `posts_nearby` was checking topic access but then returning all posts regardless of type, including whispers that should only be visible to whisperers. Use `Post.secured(guardian)` to properly filter post types based on user permissions. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, the `move_posts` action only checked `can_move_posts?` on the source topic but never validated write permissions on the destination topic. This allowed TL4 users and category group moderators to move posts into topics in categories where they lack posting privileges (e.g., read-only categories or categories with group-restricted write access). Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, missing `validate_before_create` authorization in Data Explorer's `QueryGroupBookmarkable` allows any logged-in user to create bookmarks for query groups they don't have access to, enabling metadata disclosure via bookmark reminder notifications. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 fix this issue and also make sure `validate_before_create` throws NotImplementedError in BaseBookmarkable if not implemented, to prevent similar issues in the future. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, SQL injection in PM tag filtering (`list_private_messages_tag`) allows bypassing tag filter conditions, potentially disclosing unauthorized private message metadata. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, the voters endpoint in the poll plugin lacked post visibility checks which allowed unauthorized access to voters details of polls in any post. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, TL4 users are able to close, archive and pin topics in private categories they don't have access to. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Versions prior to 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 have an IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) in `ReviewableNotesController`. When `enable_category_group_moderation` is enabled, a user belonging to a category moderation group can create or delete their own notes on **any** reviewable in the system, including reviewables in categories they do not moderate. The controller used an unscoped `Reviewable.find` and the `ensure_can_see` guard only checked whether the user could access the review queue in general, not whether they could access the specific reviewable. Only instances with `enable_category_group_moderation` enabled are affected. Staff users (admins/moderators) are not impacted as they already have access to all reviewables. The issue is patched in versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 by scoping the reviewable lookup through `Reviewable.viewable_by(current_user)`. As a workaround, disable the `enable_category_group_moderation` site setting. This removes the attack surface as only staff users will have access to the review queue.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, an IDOR vulnerability in the directory items endpoint allows any user, including anonymous users, to retrieve private user field values for all users in the directory. The `user_field_ids` parameter in `DirectoryItemsController#index` accepts arbitrary user field IDs without authorization checks, bypassing the visibility restrictions (`show_on_profile` / `show_on_user_card`) that are enforced elsewhere (e.g., `UserCardSerializer` via `Guardian#allowed_user_field_ids`). An attacker can request `GET /directory_items.json?period=all&user_field_ids=<id>` with any private field ID and receive that field's value for every user in the directory response. This enables bulk exfiltration of private user data such as phone numbers, addresses, or other sensitive custom fields that admins have explicitly configured as non-public. The issue is patched in versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 by filtering `user_field_ids` against `UserField.public_fields` for non-staff users before building the custom field map. As a workaround, site administrators can remove sensitive data from private user fields, or disable the user directory via the `enable_user_directory` site setting.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, `discourse-policy` plugin allows any authenticated user to interact with policies on posts they do not have permission to view. The `PolicyController` loads posts by ID without verifying the current user's access, enabling policy group members to accept/unaccept policies on posts in private categories or PMs they cannot see and any authenticated user to enumerate which post IDs have policies attached via differentiated error responses (information disclosure). The issue is patched in versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 by adding a `guardian.can_see?(@post)` check in the `set_post` before_action, ensuring post visibility is verified before any policy action is processed. As a workaround, disabling the discourse-policy plugin (`policy_enabled = false`) eliminates the vulnerability. There is no other workaround without upgrading.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, when the `patreon_webhook_secret` site setting is blank, an attacker can forge valid webhook signatures by computing an HMAC-MD5 with an empty string as the key. Since the request body is known to the sender, the attacker can produce a matching signature and send arbitrary webhook payloads. This allows unauthorized creation, modification, or deletion of Patreon pledge data and triggering patron-to-group synchronization. This vulnerability is patched in versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0. The fix rejects webhook requests when the webhook secret is not configured, preventing signature forgery with an empty key. As a workaround, configure the `patreon_webhook_secret` site setting with a strong, non-empty secret value. When the secret is non-empty, an attacker cannot forge valid signatures without knowing the secret.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, several webhook endpoints (SendGrid, Mailjet, Mandrill, Postmark, SparkPost) in the `WebhooksController` accepted requests without a valid authentication token when no token was configured. This allowed unauthenticated attackers to forge webhook payloads and artificially inflate user bounce scores, potentially causing legitimate user emails to be disabled. The Mailpace endpoint had no token validation at all. Starting in versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, all webhook endpoints reject requests with a 406 response when no authentication token is configured. As a workaround, ensure that webhook authentication tokens are configured for all email provider integrations in site settings (e.g., `sendgrid_verification_key`, `mailjet_webhook_token`, `postmark_webhook_token`, `sparkpost_webhook_token`). There's no current workaround for mailpace before getting this fix.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, non-admin moderators can view sensitive information in staff action logs that should be restricted to administrators only. The exposed information includes webhook payload URLs and secrets, API key details, site setting changes, private message content, restricted category names and structures, and private chat channel titles. This allows moderators to bypass intended access controls and extract confidential data by monitoring the staff action logs. With leaked webhook secrets, an attacker could potentially spoof webhook events to integrated services. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. As a workaround, site administrators should review and limit moderator appointments to fully trusted users. There is no configuration-based workaround to prevent this access.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, permalinks pointing to access-restricted resources (private topics, categories, posts, or hidden tags) were redirecting users to URLs containing the resource slug, even when the user didn't have access to view the resource. This leaked potentially sensitive information (e.g., private topic titles) via the redirect Location header and the 404 page's search box. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, moderators can convert some personal messages to public topics when they shouldn't have access. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. As a workaround, site admin can temporarily revoke the moderation role from untrusted moderators or remove the moderator group from the "personal message enabled groups" site setting until the Discourse instance has been upgraded to a version that has been patched.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. A privilege escalation vulnerability in versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0 allows a non-admin moderator to bypass email-change restrictions, allowing a takeover of non-staff accounts. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. As a workaround, ensure moderators are trusted or enable the "require_change_email_confirmation" setting.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, moderators can access the `top_uploads` admin report which should be restricted to admins only. This report displays direct URLs to all uploaded files on the site, including sensitive content such as user data exports, admin backups, and other private attachments that moderators should not have access to. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. There is no workaround. Limit moderator privileges to trusted users until the patch is applied.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, authenticated users can submit crafted payloads to /drafts.json that cause O(n^2) processing in Base62.decode, tying up workers for 35-60 seconds per request. This affects all users as the shared worker pool becomes exhausted. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. Lowering the max_draft_length site setting reduces attack surface but does not fully mitigate the issue, as payloads under the limit can still trigger the slow code path.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, non-admin moderators with the `moderators_change_post_ownership` setting enabled can change ownership of posts in private messages and restricted categories they cannot access, then export their data to view the content. This is a broken access control vulnerability affecting sites that grant moderators post ownership transfer permissions. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. The patch adds visibility checks for both the topic and posts before allowing ownership transfer. As a workaround, disable the `moderators_change_post_ownership` site setting to prevent non-admin moderators from using the post ownership transfer feature.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, users archives are viewable by users with moderation privileges even though moderators should not have access to the archives. Private topic/post content made by the users are leaked through the archives leading to a breach of confidentiality. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. To work around this problem, a site admin can temporarily revoke the moderation role from all moderators until the Discourse instance has been upgraded to a version that has been patched.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, a hostname validation issue in FinalDestination could allow bypassing SSRF protections under certain conditions. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, an endpoint lets any authenticated user bypass the ai_discover_persona access controls and gain ongoing DM access to personas that may be wired to staff-only categories, RAG document sets, or automated tooling, enabling unauthorized data disclosure. Because the controller also accepts arbitrary user_id, an attacker can impersonate other accounts to trigger unwanted AI conversations on their behalf, generating confusing or abusive PM traffic. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0 have an application level denial of service vulnerabilityin the username change functionality at try.discourse.org. The vulnerability allows attackers to cause noticeable server delays and resource exhaustion by sending large JSON payloads to the username preference endpoint PUT /u//preferences/username, resulting in degraded performance for other users and endpoints. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, some subscription endpoints lack proper checking for ownership before making changes. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0 have a content-security-policy-mitigated cross-site scriptinv vulnerability on the Discourse Math plugin when using its KaTeX variant. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. As a workaround, the Discourse Math plugin can be disabled, or the Mathjax provider can be used instead of KaTeX.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. A vulnerability present in versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0 affects anyone who uses S3 for uploads. While scripts may be executed, they will only be run in the context of the S3/CDN domain, with no site credentials. Versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0 fix the issue. As a workaround, disallow html or xml files for uploads in authorized_extensions. For existing html xml uploads, site owners can consider deleting them.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 3.5.3, 2025.11.1, and 2025.12.0, an attacker who knows part of a username can find the user and their full name via UI or API, even when `enable_names` is disabled. Versions 3.5.3, 2025.11.1, and 2025.12.0 contain a fix.

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Version before 3.6.2 and 3.6.0.beta2, default Cache-Control response header with value no-store, no-cache was missing from error responses. This may caused unintended caching of those responses by proxies potentially leading to cache poisoning attacks. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.6.2 and 3.6.0.beta2.

Discourse is an open-source community discussion platform. In versions 3.5.0 and below, malicious meta-commands could be embedded in a backup dump and executed during restore. In multisite setups, this allowed an admin of one site to access data or credentials from other sites. This issue is fixed in version 3.5.1.

Discourse is an open-source community discussion platform. In versions 3.5.0 and below, the Discourse AI suggestion endpoints for topic “Title”, “Category”, and “Tags” allowed authenticated users to extract information about topics that they weren’t authorized to access. By modifying the “topic_id” value in API requests to the AI suggestion endpoints, users could target specific restricted topics. The AI model’s responses then disclosed information that the authenticated user couldn’t normally access. This issue is fixed in version 3.5.1. To workaround this issue, users can restrict group access to the AI helper feature through the "composer_ai_helper_allowed_groups" and "post_ai_helper_allowed_groups" site settings.

Discourse is an open-source community discussion platform. Versions 3.5.0 and below are vulnerable to XSS attacks through parsing and rendering of chat channel titles and chat thread titles via the quote message functionality when using the rich text editor. This issue is fixed in version 3.5.1.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Welcome banner user name string for logged in users can be vulnerable to XSS attacks, which affect the user themselves or an admin impersonating them. Admins can temporarily alter the welcome_banner.header.logged_in_members site text to remove the preferred_display_name placeholder, or not impersonate any users for the time being. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.5.0.beta8.

Discourse is an open-source community discussion platform. Prior to version 3.4.7 on the `stable` branch and version 3.5.0.beta.8 on the `tests-passed` branch, upon issuing a physical security key for 2FA, the server generates a WebAuthn challenge, which the client signs. The challenge is not cleared from the user’s session after authentication, potentially allowing reuse and increasing security risk. This is fixed in versions 3.4.7 and 3.5.0.beta.8.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. The visibility of posts typed `whisper` is controlled via the `whispers_allowed_groups` site setting. Only users that belong to groups specified in the site setting are allowed to view posts typed `whisper`. However, it has been discovered that users of versions prior to 3.4.6 on the `stable` branch and prior to 3.5.0.beta8-dev on the `tests-passed` branch can continue to see their own whispers even after losing visibility of posts typed `whisper`. This issue is patched in versions 3.4.6 and 3.5.0.beta8-dev. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Versions prior to 3.5.0.beta6 are vulnerable to cross-site scripting when the content security policy isn't enabled when using social logins. Version 3.5.0.beta6 patches the issue. As a workaround, have the content security policy enabled.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.4.4 of the `stable` branch, version 3.5.0.beta5 of the `beta` branch, and version 3.5.0.beta6-dev of the `tests-passed` branch, Codepen is present in the default `allowed_iframes` site setting, and it can potentially auto-run arbitrary JS in the iframe scope, which is unintended. This issue is patched in version 3.4.4 of the `stable` branch, version 3.5.0.beta5 of the `beta` branch, and version 3.5.0.beta6-dev of the `tests-passed` branch. As a workaround, the Codepen prefix can be removed from a site's `allowed_iframes`.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.4.4 of the `stable` branch, version 3.5.0.beta5 of the `beta` branch, and version 3.5.0.beta6-dev of the `tests-passed` branch, certain invites via email may result in HTML injection in the email body if the topic title includes HTML. This includes inviting someone (without an account) to a PM and inviting someone (without an account) to a topic with a custom message. This issue is patched in version 3.4.4 of the `stable` branch, version 3.5.0.beta5 of the `beta` branch, and version 3.5.0.beta6-dev of the `tests-passed` branch. This can be worked around if the relevant templates are overridden without `{topic_title}`.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.4.4 of the `stable` branch, version 3.5.0.beta5 of the `beta` branch, and version 3.5.0.beta6-dev of the `tests-passed` branch, sending a malicious URL in a PM to a bot user can cause a reduced the availability of a Discourse instance. This issue is patched in version 3.4.4 of the `stable` branch, version 3.5.0.beta5 of the `beta` branch, and version 3.5.0.beta6-dev of the `tests-passed` branch. No known workarounds are available.

Discourse is an open-source community platform. A data leak vulnerability affects sites deployed between commits 10df7fdee060d44accdee7679d66d778d1136510 and 82d84af6b0efbd9fa2aeec3e91ce7be1a768511b. On login-required sites, the leak meant that some content on the site's homepage could be visible to unauthenticated users. Only login-required sites that got deployed during this timeframe are affected, roughly between April 30 2025 noon EDT and May 2 2025, noon EDT. Sites on the stable branch are unaffected. Private content on an instance's homepage could be visible to unauthenticated users on login-required sites. Versions of 3.5.0.beta4 after commit 82d84af6b0efbd9fa2aeec3e91ce7be1a768511b are not vulnerable to the issue. No workarounds are available. Sites must upgrade to a non-vulnerable version of Discourse.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to versions 3.4.3 on the stable branch and 3.5.0.beta3 on the beta branch, the users limit for a DM can be bypassed, thus giving the ability to potentially create a DM with every user from a site in it. This issue has been patched in stable version 3.4.3 and beta version 3.5.0.beta3.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to versions `3.3.4` on the `stable` branch and `3.4.0.beta5` on the `beta` branch, in specific circumstances, users could be added to group direct messages despite disabling direct messaging in their preferences. Versions `3.3.4` and `3.4.0.beta5` contain a patch for the issue. A workaround is available. If a user disables chat in their preferences then they cannot be added to new group chats.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to versions `3.3.4` on the `stable` branch and `3.4.0.beta5` on the `beta` branch, someone who is about to reach the limit of users in a group DM may send requests to add new users in parallel. The requests might all go through ignoring the limit due to a race condition. The patch in versions `3.3.4` and `3.4.0.beta5` uses the `lock` step in service to wrap part of the `add_users_to_channel` service inside a distributed lock/mutex in order to avoid the race condition.

Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions with some combinations of plugins, and with CSP disabled, activity streams in the user's profile page may be vulnerable to XSS. This has been patched in the latest version of Discourse core. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should ensure CSP is enabled.

Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions the endpoint for generating inline oneboxes for URLs wasn't enforcing limits on the number of URLs that it accepted, allowing a malicious user to inflict denial of service on some parts of the app. This vulnerability is only exploitable by authenticated users. This issue has been patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed versions of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should turn off the `enable inline onebox on all domains` site setting and remove all entries from the `allowed inline onebox domains` site setting.

Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions users who disable chat in preferences could still be reachable in some cases. This problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable the chat plugin within site settings.