Unauthorized whisper access via unchecked group assignment
Published Jul 9, 2026 · Updated Jul 9, 2026
Privilege escalation in affected Discourse 2026.1, 2026.4, and 2026.5 releases allows remote attackers to read and post whispers via signup data. The signup controller accepted primary_group_id from unauthenticated registration data, while whisperer? trusted that field without verifying matching group membership. Exposure requires whispers_allowed_groups to contain at least one group; the default configuration is unaffected, and access is limited to reading and posting whisper content.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in affected Discourse 2026.1, 2026.4, and 2026.5 releases allows remote attackers to read and post whispers via signup data. The signup controller accepted primary_group_id from unauthenticated registration data, while whisperer? trusted that field without verifying matching group membership. Exposure requires whispers_allowed_groups to contain at least one group; the default configuration is unaffected, and access is limited to reading and posting whisper content.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-44787
- Published
- Jul 9, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 9, 2026
- Vendor
- Discourse
- Product
- Discourse
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1190
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 9, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jul 9, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=>= 2026.1.0-latest, < 2026.1.5
- Affected versionversion=>= 2026.4.0-latest, < 2026.4.2
- Affected versionversion=>= 2026.5.0-latest, < 2026.5.1
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo