Authenticated hidden-post policy access via unchecked lookup
Published Feb 26, 2026 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Missing authorization in affected Discourse releases allows remote authenticated users to access policies attached to posts they cannot view. The discourse-policy PolicyController loads a post by ID in set_post without checking guardian.can_see? before processing policy actions. Any authenticated account can distinguish post IDs with policies through error responses, while policy-group membership also permits accept or unaccept changes on hidden posts.
Summary
What happened
Missing authorization in affected Discourse releases allows remote authenticated users to access policies attached to posts they cannot view. The discourse-policy PolicyController loads a post by ID in set_post without checking guardian.can_see? before processing policy actions. Any authenticated account can distinguish post IDs with policies through error responses, while policy-group membership also permits accept or unaccept changes on hidden posts.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-26207
- Published
- Feb 26, 2026
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Discourse
- Product
- Discourse
- Classifications
- CWE-862, T1213
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 26, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 2026Record 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=< 2025.12.2
- Affected versionversion=>= 2026.1.0-latest, < 2026.1.1
- Affected versionversion=>= 2026.2.0-latest, < 2026.2.0
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
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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