Vulnerabilities > CVE-2021-43794 - Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere vulnerability in Discourse

047910
CVSS 5.0 - MEDIUM
Attack vector
NETWORK
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
NONE
Integrity impact
NONE
Availability impact
PARTIAL
network
low complexity
discourse
CWE-610

Summary

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In affected versions an attacker can poison the cache for anonymous (i.e. not logged in) users, such that the users are shown a JSON blob instead of the HTML page. This can lead to a partial denial-of-service. This issue is patched in the latest stable, beta and tests-passed versions of Discourse.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Discourse
392

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • XML Routing Detour Attacks
    An attacker subverts an intermediate system used to process XML content and forces the intermediate to modify and/or re-route the processing of the content. XML Routing Detour Attacks are Man in the Middle type attacks. The attacker compromises or inserts an intermediate system in the processing of the XML message. For example, WS-Routing can be used to specify a series of nodes or intermediaries through which content is passed. If any of the intermediate nodes in this route are compromised by an attacker they could be used for a routing detour attack. From the compromised system the attacker is able to route the XML process to other nodes of his or her choice and modify the responses so that the normal chain of processing is unaware of the interception. This system can forward the message to an outside entity and hide the forwarding and processing from the legitimate processing systems by altering the header information.