#VU78761 Resource exhaustion in Discourse - CVE-2023-38498

Vulnerability identifier: #VU78761

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 1.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-38498

CWE-ID: CWE-400

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Discourse
Web applications / Forum & blogging software

Vendor: Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to application does not properly control consumption of internal resources within the defer queue. A remote user can trigger resource exhaustion and perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Discourse: 3.0.5 - 3.1.0 beta6

---

External links
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/26e267478d785e2f32ee7da4613e2cf4a65ff182
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-wv29-rm3f-4g2j

---

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote authenticated user via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.