Vulnerabilities
Misconfiguration
Runtime Security
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CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2022-31025

Improper Authorization

Published: Jun 07, 2022 | Modified: Nov 21, 2024
CVSS 3.x
5.3
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS 2.x
5 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
Additional information
NVDhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-31025
CWEhttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/285.html

Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. Prior to version 2.8.4 on the stable branch and 2.9.0beta5 on the beta and tests-passed branches, inviting users on sites that use single sign-on could bypass the must_approve_users check and invites by staff are always approved automatically. The issue is patched in Discourse version 2.8.4 on the stable branch and version 2.9.0.beta5 on the beta and tests-passed branches. As a workaround, disable invites or increase min_trust_level_to_allow_invite to reduce the attack surface to more trusted users.

Weakness

The product does not perform or incorrectly performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Discourse Discourse * 2.8.4 (excluding)
Discourse Discourse 2.9.0-beta1 (including) 2.9.0-beta1 (including)
Discourse Discourse 2.9.0-beta2 (including) 2.9.0-beta2 (including)
Discourse Discourse 2.9.0-beta3 (including) 2.9.0-beta3 (including)
Discourse Discourse 2.9.0-beta4 (including) 2.9.0-beta4 (including)

Extended Description

Assuming a user with a given identity, authorization is the process of determining whether that user can access a given resource, based on the user’s privileges and any permissions or other access-control specifications that apply to the resource. When access control checks are not applied consistently - or not at all - users are able to access data or perform actions that they should not be allowed to perform. This can lead to a wide range of problems, including information exposures, denial of service, and arbitrary code execution.

Potential Mitigations

  • Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
  • Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
  • Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
  • For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
  • For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.
  • One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.

References

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