Auth bypass in Discourse

CVE-2026-26973

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. Versions prior to 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 have an IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) in `ReviewableNotesController`. When `enable_category_group_moderation` is enabled, a user belonging to a category moderation group can create or delete their own notes on **any** reviewable in the system, including reviewables in categories they do not moderate. The controller used an unscoped `Reviewable.find` and the `ensure_can_see` guard only checked whether the user could access the review queue in general, not whether they could access the specific reviewable. Only instances with `enable_category_group_moderation` enabled are affected. Staff users (admins/moderators) are not impacted as they already have access to all reviewables. The issue is patched in versions 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1, and 2026.2.0 by scoping the reviewable lookup through `Reviewable.viewable_by(current_user)`. As a workaround, disable the `enable_category_group_moderation` site setting. This removes the attack surface as only staff users will have access to the review queue.

Vulnerability class: Broken Access Control

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 4.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (16.6th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 17th percentile — 16.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-26973: held from 0.002 to 0.003.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.003 · change: +0.001

Affected products

  • Discourse — versions >= 2026.2.0-latest, < 2026.2.0, >= 2026.1.0-latest, < 2026.1.1, 2026.2.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-26973?
CVE-2026-26973 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Discourse, classified under Incorrect Authorization. CVSS score: 4.3/10. Published 2026-02-26.
How severe is CVE-2026-26973?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.3 out of 10.