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TI-2021-19633 Aliases CVE-2021-43827

Inline footnotes wrapped in <a> tags can cause errors in discourse-footnotes

Priority LOW 22CWE-755Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · Low
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.

Summary

discourse-footnote is a library providing footnotes for posts in Discourse. ### Impact When posting an inline footnote wrapped in `<a>` tags (e.g. `<a>^[footnote]</a>`, the resulting rendered HTML would include a nested `<a>`, which is stripped by Nokogiri because it is not valid. This then caused a javascript error on topic pages because we were looking for an `<a>` element inside the footnote reference span and getting its ID, and because it did not exist we got a null reference error in javascript. Users are advised to update to version 0.2. As a workaround editing offending posts from the rails console or the database console for self-hosters, or disabling the plugin in the admin panel can mitigate this issue.

Why it matters now

EPSS 0.00829 57th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed discourse-footnote (discourse): 0.2

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
discoursediscourse-footnotebefore 0.20.2Patch availableCNA
  • discourse-footnote Vendordiscourse Affected before 0.2 Fixed in 0.2 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse_footnote:*:*:*:*:*:discourse:*:*before 0.2Vulnerablediscourse
  • cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse_footnote:*:*:*:*:*:discourse:*:* Versions before 0.2 Vulnerable ·discourse

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA discourse-footnote (discourse) Fixed in 0.2

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-43827

References

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences