What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-53961: Discourse: Forged AWS SNS bounce notifications can disable a targeted user's email (missing TopicArn binding)

• Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-07-09 · updated 2026-07-14
• Weakness: CWE-345

Description

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to 2026.6.0, 2026.5.1, 2026.4.2, and 2026.1.5, the AWS SES bounce webhook at POST /webhooks/aws verified that SNS messages were signed by Amazon but did not bind them to trusted TopicArn values, allowing any AWS account holder to publish validly signed forged Bounce notifications that revoke a targeted user email. This issue is fixed in versions 2026.6.0, 2026.5.1, 2026.4.2, and 2026.1.5.

Affected products

• discourse: from 2026.1.0 before 2026.1.5; from 2026.4.0 before 2026.4.2; from 2026.5.0 before 2026.5.1; 2026.6.0 — fixed in 2026.1.5, 2026.4.2, 2026.5.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: discourse 2026.1.5, 2026.4.2, 2026.5.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/3a3d315a85ef3c6aabfc7e7bb38702059784f06b
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/61f12e13aa1b760f81d5ff60f12e3a7e77434b94
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/958f0cd831d65a49ec75f05343ca2c167679f0ea
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/aea35190791261bab258ebab05da279e78cdd0e6
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/releases/tag/v2026.1.5
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/releases/tag/v2026.4.2
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/releases/tag/v2026.5.1
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/releases/tag/v2026.6.0
• https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-8f9m-v436-wr3x

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