What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-33410: Discourse hardens chat DM channel creation and expansion
- Severity: medium (CVSS 5.4 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2026-03-19 · updated 2026-06-17
- Weakness: CWE-863
Description
Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Versions prior to 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2 have two authorization issues in the chat direct message API. First, when creating a direct message channel or adding users to an existing one, the `target_groups` parameter was passed directly to the user resolution query without checking group or member visibility for the acting user. An authenticated chat user could craft an API request with a known private/hidden group name and receive a channel containing that group's members, leaking their identities. Second, `can_chat?` only checked group membership, not the `chat_enabled` user preference. A chat-disabled user could create or query DM channels between other users via the direct messages API, potentially exposing private `last_message` content from the serialized channel response. Versions 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2 contain a patch. No known workarounds are available.
Affected products
- discourse: from 2026.1.0 before 2026.1.2; from 2026.2.0 before 2026.2.1; 2026.3.0 — fixed in 2026.1.2, 2026.2.1
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: discourse 2026.1.2, 2026.2.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
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