Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-27154

XSS in Discourse ≤ 2025.12.2

Published
26 February 2026
Modified
02 March 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 1.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:U/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0015 5th percentile
Risk Priority 15 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-27154 is a low-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Discourse Discourse. Its CVSS base score is 1.3 (Low).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 5th 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-15 (Information Output Filtering) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0, a user full name can be evaluated as raw HTML when the following settings are set: `display_name_on_posts` => true; and `prioritize_username_in_ux` => false. Editing a post…

more

of a malicious user would trigger an XSS. Versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 patch the issue. No known workarounds are available.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Why these techniques?

XSS in public-facing Discourse web app directly enables T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-22454Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-29196Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-25172Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-26040Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-36473Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-22455Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-22468Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-30538Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-43659Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-37467Same product: Discourse Discourse

Affected Assets

discourse
discourse
2026.2.0 · ≤ 2025.12.2 · 2026.1.0 — 2026.1.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • SI-15 Information Output Filtering
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • SI-7 Software, Firmware, and Information Integrity
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.1.2
  • V1.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly requires validation and sanitization of user-supplied inputs such as full names before they are rendered as HTML, blocking the raw HTML evaluation that triggers this XSS.

prevent

Requires filtering of information outputs (post content and user names) to neutralize script tags or HTML, preventing the reflected XSS when display_name_on_posts is enabled.

detect

Provides integrity verification of rendered information and can detect unauthorized script insertion resulting from the unsanitized full-name field.

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.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly target introduction of XSS via coding standards/testing (mostly), yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors unaddressed (partial).

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching and EOL replacement can remediate known XSS instances in libraries or frameworks (partial) but do nothing to enforce input neutralization in application code (none).

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.

detects

Secure-coding testing and automated code-analysis tools are applied to detect improper neutralization of script-related content during web-page generation.

prevents

Knowledge exchange on emerging attack techniques and patches reduces the likelihood that cross-site scripting flaws remain unaddressed in deployed applications.

prevents

Operational indicators of compromise for web-application attacks can be incorporated into WAF or input-filtering rules, lowering the likelihood that unsanitized data reaches the browser.

prevents

Requiring language-specific secure-coding standards and automated scanning during the SDLC catches missing output encoding or improper neutralization of untrusted data before the software reaches production.

prevents

Secure-coding standards, SAST scans and removal of insecure code samples together eliminate the failure to neutralize script content that produces cross-site scripting flaws.

none

Webpage malware scanning and block-listing of known malicious sites reduce the likelihood that reflected or stored script payloads reach a user’s browser.

References