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Medium

Security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVCVE: CVE-2021-43840

message_bus is a messaging bus for Ruby processes and web clients. In versions prior to 3.3.7 users who deployed message bus with diagnostics features enabled (default off) are vulnerable to a path traversal bug, which could lead to disclosure of secret information on a machine if an unintended user were to gain access to the diagnostic route. The impact is also greater if there is no proxy for your web application as the number of steps up the directories is not bounded. For deployments which uses a proxy, the impact varies. For example, If a request goes through a proxy like Nginx with `merge_slashes` enabled, the number of steps up the directories that can be read is limited to 3 levels. This issue has been patched in version 3.3.7. Users unable to upgrade should ensure that MessageBus::Diagnostics is disabled.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2021-43840
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
31 Oct 2026, 12:01 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

CVE-2021-43840

core-osv · Original source

Published 17 Dec 2021, 19:15 UTC

message_bus is a messaging bus for Ruby processes and web clients. In versions prior to 3.3.7 users who deployed message bus with diagnostics features enabled (default off) are vulnerable to a path traversal bug, which could lead to disclosure of secret information on a machine if an unintended user were to gain access to the diagnostic route. The impact is also greater if there is no proxy for your web application as the number of steps up the directories is not bounded. For deployments which uses a proxy, the impact varies. For example, If a request goes through a proxy like Nginx with `merge_slashes` enabled, the number of steps up the directories that can be read is limited to 3 levels. This issue has been patched in version 3.3.7. Users unable to upgrade should ensure that MessageBus::Diagnostics is disabled.

osv:CVE-2021-43840
Complete source record
{
  "id": "a4df1c434af55466fb922b5c814d1146ecf9aeb8d4e7d1fd65a70b21588e56b4",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-43840",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2021-43840",
    "summary": "message_bus is a messaging bus for Ruby processes and web clients. In versions prior to 3.3.7 users who deployed message bus with diagnostics features enabled (default off) are vulnerable to a path traversal bug, which could lead to disclosure of secret information on a machine if an unintended user were to gain access to the diagnostic route. The impact is also greater if there is no proxy for your web application as the number of steps up the directories is not bounded. For deployments which uses a proxy, the impact varies. For example, If a request goes through a proxy like Nginx with `merge_slashes` enabled, the number of steps up the directories that can be read is limited to 3 levels. This issue has been patched in version 3.3.7. Users unable to upgrade should ensure that MessageBus::Diagnostics is disabled.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2021-43840",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2021-43840",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2021-43840",
        "GHSA-xmgj-5fh3-xjmm"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/discourse/message_bus",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "9b6deee01ed474c7e9b5ff65a06bb0447b4db2ba"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "9b6deee01ed474c7e9b5ff65a06bb0447b4db2ba"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v3.3.6",
            "v3.3.5",
            "v3.3.4",
            "v3.3.3",
            "v3.3.2",
            "v3.3.1",
            "v3.2.0",
            "v3.1.0",
            "v3.0.0",
            "v2.2.4",
            "v2.2.3",
            "v2.2.2",
            "v2.2.1",
            "v2.2.0.pre.2",
            "v2.2.0.pre.1",
            "v2.2.0.pre",
            "v2.1.6",
            "v2.1.5",
            "v2.1.4",
            "v2.1.3",
            "v2.1.2",
            "v2.1.1",
            "v2.1.0",
            "v2.0.9",
            "v2.0.8",
            "v2.0.7",
            "v2.0.6",
            "v2.0.5",
            "v2.0.3",
            "v2.0.2",
            "v2.0.1",
            "v2.0.0",
            "v2.0.0.beta.11",
            "v2.0.0.beta.10",
            "v2.0.0.beta.9",
            "v2.0.0.beta.8",
            "v2.0.0.beta.7",
            "v2.0.0.beta.6",
            "v2.0.0.beta.5",
            "v2.0.0.beta.4",
            "v2.0.0.beta.3",
            "v2.0.0.beta.2",
            "v2.0.0.beta.1",
            "v1.1.1",
            "v1.1.0",
            "v1.0.16",
            "v1.0.15",
            "v1.0.14",
            "v1.0.13",
            "v1.0.12",
            "v1.0.11",
            "v1.0.10",
            "v1.0.9",
            "v1.0.8",
            "v1.0.7",
            "v1.0.6",
            "1.0.5",
            "1.0.4",
            "1.0.3",
            "1.0.1",
            "1.0.0",
            "0.9.6",
            "0.9.5",
            "v0.9.3.2"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2021-43840.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-20T10:55:05.079239751Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/discourse/message_bus/security/advisories/GHSA-xmgj-5fh3-xjmm",
        "https://github.com/discourse/message_bus/commit/9b6deee01ed474c7e9b5ff65a06bb0447b4db2ba"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "unresolved_ranges": [
          {
            "cpes": [
              "cpe:2.3:a:discourse:message_bus:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*"
            ],
            "vendor_product": "discourse:message_bus",
            "extracted_events": [
              {
                "range": [
                  {
                    "fixed": "3.3.7"
                  }
                ],
                "source": "CPE_RANGE"
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "extracted_events": [
              {
                "range": [
                  {
                    "fixed": "3.3.7"
                  },
                  {
                    "fixed": "3.3.7"
                  }
                ],
                "source": "DESCRIPTION"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2021-43840",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 386852,
  "published_at": "2021-12-17T19:15:07.757+00:00"
}