Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2023-30538


Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. Due to the improper sanitization of SVG files, an attacker can execute arbitrary JavaScript on the users’ browsers by uploading a crafted SVG file. This issue is patched in the latest stable and tests-passed versions of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. For users unable to upgrade there are two possible workarounds: enable CDN handing of uploads (and ensure the CDN sanitizes SVG files) or disable SVG file uploads by ensuring that the `authorized extensions` site setting does not include `svg` (or reset that setting to the default, by default Discourse doesn't enable SVG uploads by users).


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.4, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts limited data confidentiality, limited integrity, for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from discourse organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2023, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2023-04-18T22:15:08.130

Last Modified

2026-06-17T05:54:58.467

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 5.4 (MEDIUM)

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-79

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application discourse discourse ≤ 3.0.2 Yes
Application discourse discourse < 3.1.0 Yes
Application discourse discourse 3.1.0 Yes
Application discourse discourse 3.1.0 Yes
Application discourse discourse 3.1.0 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For discourse's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.