CVE-2023-23935
Presence of restricted personal Discourse messages may be leaked if tagged with a tag
Discourse is an open-source messaging platform. In versions 3.0.1 and prior on the stable branch and versions 3.1.0.beta2 and prior on the beta and tests-passed branches, the count of personal messages displayed for a tag is a count of all personal messages regardless of whether the personal message is visible to a given user. As a result, any users can technically poll a sensitive tag to determine if a new personal message is created even if the user does not have access to the personal message.
In the patched versions, the count of personal messages tagged with a given tag is hidden by default. To revert to the old behaviour of displaying the count of personal messages for a given tag, an admin may enable the display_personal_messages_tag_counts site setting.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
Presence of restricted personal Discourse messages may be leaked if tagged with a tag
Discourse is an open-source messaging platform. In versions 3.0.1 and prior on the stable branch and versions 3.1.0.beta2 and prior on the beta and tests-passed branches, the count of personal messages displayed for a tag is a count of all personal messages regardless of whether the personal message is visible to a given user. As a result, any users can technically poll a sensitive tag to determine if a new personal message is created even if the user does not have access to the personal message.
In the patched versions, the count of personal messages tagged with a given tag is hidden by default. To revert to the old behaviour of displaying the count of personal messages for a given tag, an admin may enable the display_personal_messages_tag_counts site setting.
- Record
CVE-2023-23935- CVSS 3.1
- 3.5 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N - Weakness
- CWE-200
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2023-28006
Discourse is an open-source messaging platform. In versions 3.0.1 and prior on the stable branch and versions 3.1.0.beta2 and prior on the beta and tests-passed branches, the count of personal messages displayed for a tag is a count of all personal messages regardless of whether the personal message is visible to a given user. As a result, any users can technically poll a sensitive tag to determine if a new personal message is created even if the user does not have access to the personal message.
In the patched versions, the count of personal messages tagged with a given tag is hidden by default. To revert to the old behaviour of displaying the count of personal messages for a given tag, an admin may enable the display_personal_messages_tag_counts site setting.
- Record
EUVD-2023-28006- CVSS 3.1
- 3.5 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
Discourse is an open-source messaging platform. In versions 3.0.1 and prior on the stable branch and versions 3.1.0.beta2 and prior on the beta and tests-passed branches, the count of personal messages displayed for a tag is a count of all personal messages regardless of whether the personal message is visible to a given user. As a result, any users can technically poll a sensitive tag to determine if a new personal message is created even if the user does not have access to the personal message.
In the patched versions, the count of personal messages tagged with a given tag is hidden by default. To revert to the old behaviour of displaying the count of personal messages for a given tag, an admin may enable the display_personal_messages_tag_counts site setting.
- Record
CVE-2023-23935- CVSS 3.1
- 3.5 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N - CVSS 3.1
- 4.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N - Weakness
- CWE-200
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
Presence of restricted personal Discourse messages may be leaked if tagged with a tag
Discourse is an open-source messaging platform. In versions 3.0.1 and prior on the stable branch and versions 3.1.0.beta2 and prior on the beta and tests-passed branches, the count of personal messages displayed for a tag is a count of all personal messages regardless of whether the personal message is visible to a given user. As a result, any users can technically poll a sensitive tag to determine if a new personal message is created even if the user does not have access to the personal message.
In the patched versions, the count of personal messages tagged with a given tag is hidden by default. To revert to the old behaviour of displaying the count of personal messages for a given tag, an admin may enable the display_personal_messages_tag_counts site setting.
- Record
CVE-2023-23935- CVSS 3.1
- 3.5 Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N - Weakness
- CWE-200
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVBIT-discourse-2023-23935 No score
Presence of restricted personal Discourse messages may be leaked if tagged with a tag
Discourse is an open-source messaging platform. In versions 3.0.1 and prior on the stable branch and versions 3.1.0.beta2 and prior on the beta and tests-passed branches, the count of personal messages displayed for a tag is a count of all personal messages regardless of whether the personal message is visible to a given user. As a result, any users can technically poll a sensitive tag to determine if a new personal message is created even if the user does not have access to the personal message.
In the patched versions, the count of personal messages tagged with a given tag is hidden by default. To revert to the old behaviour of displaying the count of personal messages for a given tag, an admin may enable the display_personal_messages_tag_counts site setting.
- Record
BIT-discourse-2023-23935- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
discourseBitnami |
before 3.0.1 | 3.0.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| first indexed | CVE List, EUVD, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2023-23935 is a low vulnerability (CVSS 3.5) in Discourse, published March 16, 2023. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.50%, the 43rd percentile. Fixed in discourse 3.0.1.