Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Requires authenticated group-owner session (PR:L) over the network; confidentiality-only impact as credentials are read from the log with no write or availability consequence.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. From versions 2026.1.0-latest to before 2026.1.4, 2026.3.0-latest to before 2026.3.1, and 2026.4.0-latest to before 2026.4.1, group owners who are not necessarily admins or moderators can view a group's outgoing email/SMTP credentials in plaintext via the group history log (/groups/:name/logs.json). Affected fields: email_password, email_username, smtp_server, smtp_port, smtp_ssl_mode. The most sensitive item is the SMTP password, which an owner could use to send mail as the group from outside Discourse. This impacts sites that have configured per-group SMTP credentials and granted group ownership to users who should not have access to those credentials. This issue has been patched in versions 2026.1.4, 2026.3.1, 2026.4.1, and 2026.5.0-latest.1.
AnalysisAI
Discourse group owners can retrieve plaintext SMTP credentials - including passwords, usernames, server, port, and SSL mode - from the group history log endpoint (/groups/:name/logs.json), affecting versions 2026.1.0-latest through pre-2026.1.4, 2026.3.0-latest through pre-2026.3.1, and 2026.4.0-latest through pre-2026.4.1. An authenticated group owner who holds no admin or moderator privileges can harvest the exposed SMTP password and use it to send mail impersonating the group's email identity from any external mail client, entirely bypassing Discourse's own sending controls. …
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Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata
Vulnerability AssessmentAI
| Exploitation | Exploitation requires all of the following specific conditions to be simultaneously true: (1) the Discourse instance must have per-group SMTP credentials explicitly configured on at least one group - this is a non-default feature requiring deliberate administrator setup, and sites using only the global mailer are entirely unaffected; (2) the attacker must hold an authenticated Discourse session with group owner role on the targeted group - unauthenticated users and members without owner role cannot access the logs endpoint; (3) the group owner must not also be an admin or moderator, as the vulnerability is specifically scoped to the trust gap in the owner tier. … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment. |
| Risk Assessment | The vendor-assigned CVSS 6.5 (Medium) with vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N accurately represents the risk profile: network-reachable with low attack complexity, but requiring authenticated access at the group-owner privilege level. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in. |
| Exploit Scenario | An authenticated Discourse user who has been granted group ownership - without admin or moderator status - issues a GET request to /groups/:name/logs.json for a group they own that has per-group SMTP configured. The JSON response includes the plaintext SMTP password alongside server address and port, which the attacker then enters into an external SMTP client (e.g., a scripted curl command or a mail relay tool) to send emails from the group's address to targets outside Discourse, enabling phishing or spam campaigns that abuse the group's trusted sender identity. … |
| Remediation | Upgrade Discourse to patched versions 2026.1.4, 2026.3.1, 2026.4.1, or 2026.5.0-latest.1 as documented in vendor advisory GHSA-94c5-j24g-r99f (https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-94c5-j24g-r99f). … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report. |
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EUVD-2026-36587