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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.4

CVE-2021-39161 json

Cross-site scripting via category name in Discourse

published 2021-08-26 5 y ago modified 2026-09-08 2 mo ago also BIT-discourse-2021-39161 , EUVD-2021-25570 , GHSA-xhmc-9jwm-wqph

cvss
4.4
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 35%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions category names can be used for Cross-site scripting(XSS) attacks. This is mitigated by Discourse's default Content Security Policy and this vulnerability only affects sites which have modified or disabled or changed Discourse's default Content Security Policy have allowed for moderators to modify categories. This issue is patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed versions of Discourse. Users are advised to ensure that the Content Security Policy is enabled, and has not been modified in a way which would make it more vulnerable to XSS attacks.

Patch / fix

  • bitnami discourse 2.7.8
  • discourse discourse 2.7.8

Exploit prediction

0.41% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD 3.1 5.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:N/AC:H/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N
OSV 3.1 5.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami discourse
<2.7.8
2.7.8

Affected products

  • discourse discourse

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.