CVE-2025-68934: Discourse Has Denial of Service (DoS) Vulnerability in Drafts Creation Endpoint

Published Jan 28, 2026
·
Updated

Discourse is an open source discussion platform. In versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0, authenticated users can submit crafted payloads to /drafts.json that cause O(n^2) processing in Base62.decode, tying up workers for 35-60 seconds per request. This affects all users as the shared worker pool becomes exhausted. This issue is patched in versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0. Lowering the maxdraftlength site setting reduces attack surface but does not fully mitigate the issue, as payloads under the limit can still trigger the slow code path.

Affected Software

5 affected components
Discourse Discourse<3.5.4, <2025.11.2, <2025.12.1, <2026.1.0
Discourse Discourse<3.5.4
Discourse Discourse>=2025.11.0<2025.11.2
Discourse Discourse=2025.12.0
Discourse Discourse=2026.1.0

Event History

Jan 28, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·07:19 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·07:19 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·08:16 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2025-68934?

CVE-2025-68934 is classified as a denial of service (DoS) vulnerability.

2

How do I fix CVE-2025-68934?

To mitigate CVE-2025-68934, upgrade to Discourse versions 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, or 2026.1.0.

3

What impact does CVE-2025-68934 have on Discourse?

CVE-2025-68934 allows authenticated users to cause excessive processing times, leading to potential service unavailability.

4

Who is affected by CVE-2025-68934?

CVE-2025-68934 affects all Discourse versions prior to 3.5.4, 2025.11.2, 2025.12.1, and 2026.1.0.

5

What type of attacks can exploit CVE-2025-68934?

CVE-2025-68934 can be exploited through crafted payloads submitted to the /drafts.json endpoint, triggering O(n^2) processing delays.

Contact

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