CVE-2024-55948
Discourse ≤ 3.3.2
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:LSummary
CVE-2024-55948 is a high-severity Origin Validation Error (CWE-346) vulnerability in Discourse Discourse. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique DHCP Spoofing (T1557.003); ranked at the 17th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) and IA-3 (Device Identification and Authentication) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2024-55948 affects Discourse, an open source platform for community discussion. The vulnerability enables an attacker to craft an XHR request that poisons the anonymous cache, for example by causing cached responses to lack preloaded data. This issue is limited to anonymous visitors of the site and is classified under CWE-346, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L).
An unauthenticated attacker (PR:N) can exploit this over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N). Exploitation poisons the anonymous cache, resulting in high integrity impact (I:H) such as serving incomplete or manipulated responses to anonymous users, alongside low availability impact (A:L).
The issue has been patched in the latest version of Discourse, and users are advised to upgrade. Those unable to upgrade can mitigate by disabling the anonymous cache via the DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE environment variable set to a non-empty value. See the advisory at https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-2352-252q-qc82 for details.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-52857
Vulnerability Data
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions an attacker can make craft an XHR request to poison the anonymous cache (for example, the cache may have a response with missing preloaded data). This issue only…
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affects anonymous visitors of the site. This problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable anonymous cache by setting the `DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE` environment variable to a non-empty value.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 3 hardening rules · 1 OS baseline
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Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Information flow enforcement directly requires validating the source of data before allowing transmission or receipt.
Device identification and authentication mandates verifying the source before establishing connections.
Session authenticity mechanisms require validation that communications originate from the expected party.
Boundary protection at interfaces enforces checks on the origin of incoming communications.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Authentication directly verifies the source of users/services/hardware, mitigating origin validation failures.
Verifying identity assertions enforces origin validation for conveyed claims.
Documenting authorized flows supports origin validation by defining expected sources.
Protecting networks from unauthorized access requires origin checks on communication sources.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Network security controls enforce origin validation at network boundaries.
Security of network services includes validating the authenticity of service endpoints.
Network segregation reduces exposure but does not directly validate origins.
Application security requirements explicitly call for origin validation of inputs and communications.
Secure architecture principles encourage origin checks but do not mandate them.
Secure coding practices include implementing proper origin validation to prevent spoofing.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (3 rules)
- V-248574 YUM must be configured to prevent the installation of patches, service packs, device drivers, or OL 8 system components that have not been digitally signed using a certificate that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-346
- V-248575 OL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-346
- V-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-346