CVE-2026-33423

Received Received - Intake

Privilege Escalation in Discourse via Group Notification Modification

Publication date: 2026-03-20

Last updated on: 2026-03-25

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2, staff can modify any user's group notification level. Versions 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2 contain a patch. No known workarounds are available.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

Probability:
Percentile:

Meta Information

Published

2026-03-20

Last Modified

2026-03-25

Generated

2026-07-06

AI Q&A

2026-03-21

EPSS Evaluated

2026-07-05

NVD

CVE-2026-33423

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
discourse	discourse	From 2026.1.0 (inc) to 2026.1.2 (exc)
discourse	discourse	From 2026.2.0 (inc) to 2026.2.1 (exc)
discourse	discourse	2026.3.0

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-862	The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability affects the Discourse open-source discussion platform. Prior to certain fixed versions (2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2), staff members had the ability to modify any user's group notification level without proper restrictions.

Impact Analysis

The vulnerability allows staff users to change notification settings for any user, which could lead to unwanted or unauthorized changes in how users receive notifications. This might disrupt user experience or communication within the platform.

Compliance Impact

I don't know

Detection Guidance

I don't know

Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, you should upgrade your Discourse installation to one of the patched versions: 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, or 2026.1.2.

No known workarounds are available, so applying the patch by updating is the immediate recommended step.

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