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Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CVE-2023-23616

Medium
4.3/10

Summary

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.0.1 on the `stable` branch and 3.1.0.beta2 on the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, when submitting a membership request, there is no character limit for the reason provided with the request. This could potentially allow a user to flood the database with a large amount of data. However it is unlikely this could be used as part of a DoS attack, as the paths reading back the reasons are only available to administrators. Starting in version 3.0.1 on the `stable` branch and 3.1.0.beta2 on the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, a limit of 280 characters has been introduced for membership requests.

  • LOW
  • NETWORK
  • NONE
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • NONE
  • LOW

CWE-400 - Uncontrolled resource consumption

An uncontrolled resource allocation attack (also known as resource exhaustion attack) triggers unauthorized overconsumption of the limited resources in an application, such as memory, file system storage, database connection pool entries, and CPU. This may lead to denial of service for valid users and degradation of the application's functionality as well as that of the host operating system.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published