CVE-2025-69289 - CVE House
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Status published Medium CVE-2025-69289

Discourse has insecure default configuration that allows non-admin moderators to takeover any non-staff account via email change

Vulnerability Description

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. A privilege escalation vulnerability in versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0 allows a non-admin moderator to bypass email-change restrictions, allowing a takeover of non-staff accounts. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. As a workaround, ensure moderators are trusted or enable the "require_change_email_confirmation" setting.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

References

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CVE-2025-68933
Discourse non-admin moderators can exfiltrate private content via post ownership transfer
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CVE-2025-68666
Discourse users archives leaked to users with moderation privileges
Medium 5.9
CVE-2025-68662
FinalDestination hostname matching allows SSRF protection bypass
High 7.6

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

discourse
Vulnerable Versions:
< 3.5.4, >= 2025.11.0-latest, < 2025.11.2, >= 2025.12.0-latest, < 2025.12.1, >= 2026.1.0-latest, < 2026.1.0

Timeline

Official Publish: January 28th, 2026
Last Modified: January 28th, 2026
Added to House: July 22nd, 2026

CVSS Vectors

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-863

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application
Initial Access
T1078 Valid Accounts
Persistence
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism
Privilege Escalation
T1021 Remote Services
Lateral Movement
T1098 Account Manipulation
Defense Evasion