Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-33410

Access Control in Discourse 2026.1.0 – 2026.1.2

Published
19 March 2026
Modified
24 March 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.4
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0016 5th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-33410 is a medium-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Discourse Discourse. Its CVSS base score is 5.4 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Account Discovery (T1087); 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — 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. Versions prior to 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2 have two authorization issues in the chat direct message API. First, when creating a direct message channel or adding users to an existing one, the `target_groups` parameter…

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was passed directly to the user resolution query without checking group or member visibility for the acting user. An authenticated chat user could craft an API request with a known private/hidden group name and receive a channel containing that group's members, leaking their identities. Second, `can_chat?` only checked group membership, not the `chat_enabled` user preference. A chat-disabled user could create or query DM channels between other users via the direct messages API, potentially exposing private `last_message` content from the serialized channel response. Versions 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2 contain a patch. No known workarounds are available.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1087 Account Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of valid accounts, usernames, or email addresses on a system or within a compromised environment.
T1213.005 Messaging Applications Collection
Adversaries may leverage chat and messaging applications, such as Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, and Slack, to mine valuable information.
Why these techniques?

Authorization bypass in chat DM API directly enables account discovery (leaking hidden group members) and access to private messaging data (last_message exposure).

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-68933Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2023-32061Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2026-33291Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2025-69289Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2026-24742Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2025-69218Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2026-33428Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2026-33251Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2026-27153Same product: Discourse Discourse
CVE-2026-28282Same product: Discourse Discourse

Affected Assets

discourse
discourse
2026.3.0 · 2026.1.0 — 2026.1.2 · 2026.2.0 — 2026.2.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly enforces authorization decisions on target_groups visibility and chat_enabled preference before allowing DM channel creation or queries.

prevent

Limits the privileges granted to authenticated chat users so they cannot access or enumerate private groups or other users' DM channels.

prevent

Enforces information-flow rules that would block leakage of hidden group membership and last_message content through the DM API.

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.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

Defining, enforcing, and reviewing access authorizations and least privilege directly prevents incorrect authorization checks.

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.

prevents

Requiring consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

prevents

Enforcing policy-driven approval and role-change reviews stops incorrect or stale authorization decisions from remaining in effect after job changes or terminations.

prevents

By tying access rights to identity, device, location and classification, the control reduces the likelihood that an authorization decision will be based on an incorrect or bypassed policy.

References