CVE-2024-55948 | Anonymous cache poisoning via XHR requests in Discourse

Discourse is an open source platform for community discussion. In affected versions an attacker can make craft an XHR request to poison the anonymous cache (for example, the cache may have a response with missing preloaded data). This issue only affects anonymous visitors of the site. This problem has been patched in the latest version of Discourse. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should disable anonymous cache by setting the `DISCOURSE_DISABLE_ANON_CACHE` environment variable to a non-empty value.

Published: 2025-02-04 Last update: 2025-08-26 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2024-55948 is rated Moderate Risk (40.9/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2024-55948

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-10-01 0.04% 0.07% +0.03%
2 2025-02-05 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-55948

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.2 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 3.9 4.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-55948

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-55948

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
discourse discourse < 3.3.2 cpe:2.3:a:discourse:discourse:*:*:*:*:stable:*:*:*

References for CVE-2024-55948

cvelogic Threat Intelligence