Discourse IDOR in ReviewableNotesController pre 2025.12.2, 2026.1.1 & 2026.2.0
CVE-2026-26973 Published on February 26, 2026
Discourse doesn't scope reviewable notes to user-visible reviewables
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 Analysis
CVE-2026-26973 can be exploited with network access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality, with no impact on integrity, and no impact on availability.
Weakness Type
What is an AuthZ Vulnerability?
The software performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check. This allows attackers to bypass intended access restrictions.
CVE-2026-26973 has been classified to as an AuthZ vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-26973
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Affected Versions
discourse:- Version < 2025.12.2 is affected.
- Version >= 2026.1.0-latest, < 2026.1.1 is affected.
- Version >= 2026.2.0-latest, < 2026.2.0 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.