Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V4 - API and Web Service URL allowlisting, SSRF prevention
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Initial Access, Credential Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS v4.0 score of 5.3 reflects moderate risk with low impact severity-confidentiality loss is limited (VC:L) and integrity/availability are unaffected. The attack requires authentication (PR:L) and low complexity (AC:L), with network-based access (AV:N). SSRF vulnerabilities are inherently concerning because they enable reconnaissance that often precedes higher-impact attacks; however, the limited scope (single endpoint for email settings) and requirement for group owner privileges reduce immediate threat. EPSS data unavailable, but the public advisory, confirmed patch availability across three release tracks, and lack of weaponized POC suggest this is a real but contained vulnerability prioritized for standard patching cycles rather than emergency response. Organizations using Discourse should treat this as a normal-cadence security update, not a critical outbreak. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An authenticated non-staff group owner logs into a Discourse instance and accesses the group email settings configuration page. They manually craft a request to the email test endpoint specifying internal IP addresses and ports (e.g., 127.0.0.1:5432 for a PostgreSQL database or 192.168.1.100:22 for SSH) instead of legitimate mail server addresses. The server, lacking validation, initiates the connection and returns connection status or error messages that reveal whether services exist and are reachable. An attacker could iterate through private address ranges to map the internal network topology, identify running services, and plan follow-up attacks against discovered infrastructure. No public POC exists; exploitation requires authentication and direct knowledge of the endpoint behavior. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 31, 2026
Server-side request forgery (SSRF) in Discourse group email settings test endpoint allows authenticated non-staff group owners to initiate outbound connections to arbitrary hosts and ports, enabling internal network reconnaissance. Affects Discourse 2026.1.0-2026.1.2, 2026.2.0-2026.2.1, and 2026.3.0-rc versions. Patched in 2026.1.3, 2026.2.2, and 2026.3.0. No public exploit code or active exploitation confirmed at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Upgrade Discourse to version 2026.1.3, 2026.2.2, or 2026.3.0 (or later) depending on your current release track. These versions include a fix (commit e75cf456e8e318290c569bd6e8fa0f2586ffc530) that restricts the group email settings test endpoint to authorized staff members and adds network boundary validation. For organizations unable to upgrade immediately, restrict access to group owner roles through administrative policy or disable the email settings test feature entirely until a patched version can be deployed. Refer to the GitHub security advisory at https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-5976-77mj-m4h3 for detailed mitigation guidance and the upstream commit details.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 3 packages in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerability is a Server-Side Request Forgery (CWE-918) in Discourse's group email settings test endpoint. This endpoint was designed to validate email configuration but lacked proper network boundary enforcement, allowing it to be abused as a proxy for initiating connections to internal infrastructure. The flaw exists because the endpoint failed to restrict destinations to legitimate mail servers or block private IP address ranges (RFC 1918), instead accepting arbitrary host and port parameters from authenticated but non-privileged group owners. The SSRF attack surface is particularly dangerous in containerized or cloud deployments where internal services (databases, caches, metadata servers, admin panels) are accessible via localhost or internal VLANs.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:N/SA:N
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M) · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. From versions 2026.1.0-latest to before 2026.1.3, 2026.2.0-latest to before 2026.2.2, and 2026.3.0-latest to before 2026.3.0, the group email settings test endpoint could be used to make the server initiate outbound connections to arbitrary hosts and ports. This could allow probing of internal network infrastructure. The endpoint was accessible to non-staff group owners. This issue has been patched in versions 2026.1.3, 2026.2.2, and 2026.3.0.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Server-Side Request Forgery exploits applications that fetch remote resources based on user-supplied URLs.
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EUVD-2026-17571
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
GitHub
VulDB
Exploit-DB