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TI-2025-42390 Aliases CVE-2025-68934

Discourse Has Denial of Service (DoS) Vulnerability in Drafts Creation Endpoint

Priority LOW 29CWE-770Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-770.

Summary

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, authenticated users can submit crafted payloads to /drafts.json that cause O(n^2) processing in Base62.decode, tying up workers for 35-60 seconds per request. This affects all users as the shared worker pool becomes exhausted. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. Lowering the max_draft_length site setting reduces attack surface but does not fully mitigate the issue, as payloads under the limit can still trigger the slow code path.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00279 20th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed discourse (discourse): 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2026.1.0

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
discoursediscoursebefore 3.5.4; 2025.11.0-latest to before 2025.11.2; >= 2025.12.0-latest, 2025.12.1; 2026.1.0-latest to before 2026.1.03.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2026.1.0Patch availableCNA
  • discourse Vendordiscourse Affected before 3.5.4; 2025.11.0-latest to before 2025.11.2; >= 2025.12.0-latest, 2025.12.1; 2026.1.0-latest to before 2026.1.0 Fixed in 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2026.1.0 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 3

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:*:*:*:*:stable:*:*:*before 3.5.4; 2025.11.0 to before 2025.11.2Vulnerablediscourse
cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:2025.12.0:*:*:*:stable:*:*:*2025.12.0Vulnerablediscourse
cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:2026.1.0:*:*:*:stable:*:*:*2026.1.0Vulnerablediscourse
  • cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:*:*:*:*:stable:*:*:* Versions before 3.5.4; 2025.11.0 to before 2025.11.2 Vulnerable ·discourse
  • cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:2025.12.0:*:*:*:stable:*:*:* Versions 2025.12.0 Vulnerable ·discourse
  • cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:2026.1.0:*:*:*:stable:*:*:* Versions 2026.1.0 Vulnerable ·discourse

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA discourse (discourse) Fixed in 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2026.1.0

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-68934

References

Advisory 1

  • TI-2021-19656 Denial of Service in discourse CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.8
  • TI-2024-36150 Potential Backup file leaked via Nginx in Discourse CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
  • TI-2021-18002 RCE via malicious SNS subscription payload CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 10.0
  • TI-2026-24651 Discourse: Open redirect via `sso_destination_url` cookie in `enter` CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 5.1
  • TI-2026-22278 Discourse leaks private topic title and post excerpt via user action API endpoint CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
  • TI-2023-24152 Unauthenticated access to new private chat messages in Discourse CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
See all 262 →

Sources

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