CVE-2024-53991

HIGH NUCLEI

Discourse - Unauthorized Backup File Access via Nginx Request Manipulation

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

CVE-2024-53991 has a Nuclei detection template available — see the Nuclei card below for the Shodan/FOFA recon queries.

Description

Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. This vulnerability only impacts Discourse instances configured to use `FileStore::LocalStore` which means uploads and backups are stored locally on disk. If an attacker knows the name of the Discourse backup file, the attacker can trick nginx into sending the Discourse backup file with a well crafted request. This issue is patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed versions of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade can either 1. Download all local backups on to another storage device, disable the `enable_backups` site setting and delete all backups until the site has been upgraded to pull in the fix. Or 2. Change the `backup_location` site setting to `s3` so that backups are stored and downloaded directly from S3.

Nuclei Templates (1)

Discourse Backup File Disclosure Via Default Nginx Configuration
HIGHby iamnoooob,rootxharsh,pdresearch
Shodan: http.component:"Discourse"

References (1)

Core 1
Core References
Mitigation, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_confirm
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/security/advisories/GHSA-567m-82f6-56rv

Scores

CVSS v3 7.5
EPSS 0.2543
EPSS Percentile 97.7%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable yes
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-200
Status published
Products (3)
discourse/discourse 3.4.0 beta1 (3 CPE variants)
discourse/discourse < 3.3.2
discourse/discourse < 3.4.0
Published Dec 19, 2024
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026