CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2022-21677 — Discourse is an open source discussion platform
Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Discourse groups can be configured with varying visibility levels for the group as well as the group members. By default, a newly created group has its visibility set to public and the group's members visibility set to public as well. However, a group's visibility and the group's members visibility can be configured such that it is restricted to logged on users, members of the group or staff users. A vulnerability has been discovered in versions prior to 2.7.13 and 2.8.0.beta11 where the group advanced search option does not respect the group's visibility and members visibility level. As such, a group with restricted visibility or members visibility can be revealed through search with the right search option. This issue is patched in `stable` version 2.7.13, `beta` version 2.8.0.beta11, and `tests-passed` version 2.8.0.beta11 versions of Discourse. There are no workarounds aside from upgrading.
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.3 (3.1)
- Published
- 2022-01-14
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- software/application
- Weaknesses
- CWE-200
Affected products
- discourse / discourse
- discourse / discourse / 2.8.0
Matched remediation archetype
Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
- Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
- Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.
Remediate safely
- Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
- Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
- Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.