CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2026-31869 — Discourse is an open-source discussion platform

Medium CVSS 5.3

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2, the ComposerController#mentions endpoint reveals hidden group membership to any authenticated user who can message the group. By supplying allowed_names referencing a hidden-membership group and probing arbitrary usernames, an attacker can infer membership based on whether user_reasons returns "private" for a given user. This bypasses group member-visibility controls. Versions 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2 contain a patch. To work around this issue, restrict the messageable policy of any hidden-membership group to staff or group members only, so untrusted users cannot reach the vulnerable code path.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.3 (4.0)
Published
2026-03-20
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-200, CWE-285, CWE-639

Affected products

  • discourse / discourse
  • discourse / discourse / 2026.3.0

Showing 2 representative product identities from 3 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authorization bypass, IDOR, and cross-tenant access

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map object and action authorization checks across API, UI, batch, import/export, and background-job paths.
  • Identify tenant, ownership, role, and policy boundaries for affected resources and administrative operations.
  • Use synthetic fixtures to compare intended access matrices without accessing another user's real data.

Remediate safely

  • Enforce server-side authorization at each resource access and state transition using the authenticated principal and trusted tenant context.
  • Scope data queries by tenant and ownership; treat client-supplied identifiers, roles, and policy claims as untrusted.
  • Add deny-by-default policy tests for horizontal and vertical access across every affected transport.

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.