Administrator-triggered service interruption via unthrottled backups
Published Mar 17, 2023 · Updated Feb 25, 2025
Resource exhaustion in Discourse stable before 3.0.2 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt service through repeated backup requests. Admin::BackupsController#create accepted repeated backup creation requests without rate limiting, allowing concurrent jobs to consume the database connection pool. Administrator access is required; beta and tests-passed before 3.1.0.beta3 are also affected, and multisite deployment extends the interruption across the cluster.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in Discourse stable before 3.0.2 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt service through repeated backup requests. Admin::BackupsController#create accepted repeated backup creation requests without rate limiting, allowing concurrent jobs to consume the database connection pool. Administrator access is required; beta and tests-passed before 3.1.0.beta3 are also affected, and multisite deployment extends the interruption across the cluster.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-28107
- Published
- Mar 17, 2023
- Updated
- Feb 25, 2025
- Vendor
- Discourse
- Product
- Discourse
- Classifications
- CWE-770, T1499
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 17, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 25, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=beta < 3.1.0.beta3
- Affected versionversion=stable < 3.0.2
- Affected versionversion=tests-passed < 3.1.0.beta3
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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