CVE-2025-68479
Published: 28 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2025-68479 is a high-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Discourse Discourse. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 21.5th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-24 (Access Control Decisions).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-68479 is a missing authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) in Discourse, an open source discussion platform. It affects versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, where certain subscription endpoints fail to properly check ownership before allowing changes. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N), indicating network accessibility, low attack complexity, and impacts primarily on confidentiality with lesser effects on integrity.
An authenticated attacker with low privileges, such as a standard registered user, can exploit this vulnerability remotely without user interaction. By targeting the affected subscription endpoints, they can make unauthorized changes to subscriptions owned by other users, potentially exposing sensitive subscription data (high confidentiality impact) or altering subscription details (low integrity impact).
The Discourse security advisory at https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-6gjr-5897-m327 confirms the issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. No known workarounds are available, so administrators should upgrade affected instances promptly.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-206451
Vulnerability details
Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, some subscription endpoints lack proper checking for ownership before making changes. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. No known…
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workarounds are available.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Missing authorization on public-facing Discourse web endpoints directly enables remote exploitation of the application by authenticated users to access/modify unauthorized resources.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly enforces ownership-based authorization decisions on subscription endpoints before allowing modifications, preventing the unauthorized changes described in the CVE.
Restricts low-privilege authenticated users from reaching or acting on subscription resources they do not own, limiting exploitability of the missing ownership check.
Requires explicit access-control decisions (including ownership verification) to be made and enforced for each subscription change request.