Medium severity · published Aug 26, 2021
CVE-2021-39161
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion
5.4
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions category names can be used for Cross-site scripting(XSS) attacks. This is mitigated by Discourse's default Content Security Policy and this vulnerability only affects sites which have modified or disabled or changed Discourse's default Content Security Policy have allowed for moderators to modify categories. This issue is patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed versions of Discourse. Users are advised to ensure that the Content Security Policy is enabled, and has not been modified in a way which would make it more vulnerable to XSS attacks.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 35% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
DI
Discourse · Discourse
before 2.7.8; 2.8.0; 2.8.0; 2.8.0; 2.8.0 · source: NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-39161
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-39161
Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-xhmc-9jwm-wqph
More from Discourse
9.9
CVE-2025-68662
FinalDestination hostname matching allows SSRF protection bypass
9.8
CVE-2025-53102
Discourse's WebAuthn challenge isn't cleared from user session after authentication
9.8
CVE-2025-48877
Discourse is an open-source discussion platform
9.8
CVE-2023-47121
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion
9.8
CVE-2021-41163
Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion
