CVE-2026-31805

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform.

Verified by Precogs Threat Research
Last Updated: Mar 20, 2026
Base Score
5.3MEDIUM

Executive Summary

CVE-2026-31805 is a medium severity vulnerability affecting ai-code, appsec. It is classified as CWE-20. Ensure your systems and dependencies are patched immediately to mitigate exposure risks.

Precogs AI Insight

"The root cause of this vulnerability lies in within Discourse, allowing the mishandling of memory allocation boundaries. Exploitation typically involves an attacker attempting to escalate their own privileges to administrative levels without proper credentials. Precogs AI Security Platform provides comprehensive vulnerability detection to alert security teams to imminent boundary violations."

Exploit Probability (EPSS)
Low (0.1%)
Public POC
Undisclosed
Exploit Probability
Low (<10%)
Public POC
Available
Affected Assets
ai codeappsecCWE-20

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2026-31805 is categorized as a critical Improper Input Validation flaw. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

Discourse is an open-source discussion platform. Prior to versions 2026.3.0-latest.1, 2026.2.1, and 2026.1.2, an authorization bypass in the poll plugin al...

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

MetricValue
CVSS Base Score5.3 (MEDIUM)
Vector StringCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
PublishedMarch 20, 2026
Last ModifiedMarch 20, 2026
Related CWEsCWE-20, CWE-863

Impact on Systems

Chained Exploitation: Serves as the root cause enabling XSS, SQLi, and Command Injection attacks down the execution chain.

Business Logic Bypass: Manipulating unexpected inputs (e.g., negative integers for price amounts) subverts core business logic.

Denial of Service: Sending massively oversized or recursively complex inputs can exhaust CPU/Memory parsing limits.

How to fix this issue?

Implement the following strategic mitigations immediately to eliminate the attack surface.

1. Strict Allow-listing Define rigid, regex-based allow-lists for all input vectors, rejecting any data that does not conform to the expected length, type, and format.

2. Type Juggling Prevention Utilize strong static typing and strictly compare variable types before processing data structures.

3. API Gateway Defenses Deploy Web Application Firewalls (WAF) and central API Gateways to strip malformed payloads before they reach internal services.

Vulnerability Signature

// Improper Validation resulting in unexpected logic execution
function process_order(quantity) \{
    // VULNERABLE: No check if quantity is positive or an integer
    let total_price = quantity * 100.00;
    user_balance -= total_price; // Negative quantity INCREASES balance
\}

References and Sources

Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

StageDetail
SourceUntrusted User Input
VectorInput flows through the application logic without sanitization
SinkExecution or Rendering Sink
ImpactApplication compromise, Logic Bypass, Data Exfiltration

Vulnerable Code Pattern

# ❌ VULNERABLE: Unsanitized Input Flow
def process_request(request):
    user_input = request.GET.get('data')
    # Taint sink: processing untrusted data
    execute_logic(user_input)
    return {"status": "success"}

Secure Code Pattern

# ✅ SECURE: Input Validation & Sanitization
def process_request(request):
    user_input = request.GET.get('data')
    
    # Sanitized boundary check
    if not is_valid_format(user_input):
        raise ValueError("Invalid input format")
        
    sanitized_data = sanitize(user_input)
    execute_logic(sanitized_data)
    return {"status": "success"}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs AI Analysis Engine maps untrusted input directly to execution sinks to catch complex application security vulnerabilities.\n

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CVE-2026-4860: Unsafe Deserialization in wvp-GB28181-pro

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CVE-2026-36415.3 MEDIUM

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CVE-2026-34605.3 MEDIUM

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CWE-20

Is your system affected?

Precogs AI detects CVE-2026-31805 in compiled binaries, LLMs, and application layers — even without source code access.