Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions users that are allowed to invite others can inject arbitrarily large data in parameters used in the invite route. The problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable invites or restrict access to them using the invite allowed groups site setting.
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discourse | Discourse | * | 3.2.0 (excluding) |
| Discourse | Discourse | * | 3.3.0 (excluding) |
| Discourse | Discourse | 3.3.0-beta1 (including) | 3.3.0-beta1 (including) |
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either:
The first of these solutions is an issue in itself though, since it may allow attackers to prevent the use of the system by a particular valid user. If the attacker impersonates the valid user, they may be able to prevent the user from accessing the server in question.
The second solution is simply difficult to effectively institute – and even when properly done, it does not provide a full solution. It simply makes the attack require more resources on the part of the attacker.