CVE-2023-38684
Discourse vulnerable to ossible DDoS due to unbounded limits in various controller actions
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
Description
Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.0.6 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta7 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, in multiple controller actions, Discourse accepts limit params but does not impose any upper bound on the values being accepted. Without an upper bound, the software may allow arbitrary users to generate DB queries which may end up exhausting the resources on the server. The issue is patched in version 3.0.6 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta7 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 4 days later
· 4 days later
Published
- 15 months later
· 15 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium5.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.64% · top 49% of all CVEs (8 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.3.
Weakness
Affected products
References (2)
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-ff7g-xv79-hgmf (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/bfc3132bb22bd5b7e86f428746b89c4d3d7f5a70 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-38684)Record last updated .