GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-863 vulnerability in red-discordbot. A fix is available for red-discordbot — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Red-DiscordBot vulnerable to Incorrect Authorization in commands API
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
red-discordbotReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Due to a bug in Red's Core API, 3rd-party cogs using the @commands.can_manage_channel() command permission check without additional permission controls may authorize a user to run a command even when that user doesn't have permissions to manage a channel.
None of the core commands or core cogs are affected. The maintainers of the project are not aware of any public 3rd-party cog utilizing this API at the time of writing this advisory.
The @commands.mod_or_can_manage_channel(), @commands.admin_or_can_manage_channel(), and @commands.guildowner_or_can_manage_channel() command permission checks are unaffected.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/AU:Y/R:U/RE:L
Patches
The problem was patched in PR #6398 and later released in version 3.5.10.
Workarounds
Any cog using the @commands.can_manage_channel() command permission check should be unloaded until an upgrade to a patched version can be performed.
References
https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/pull/6398 https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/releases/tag/3.5.10 https://pypi.org/project/Red-DiscordBot/3.5.10/
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | red-discordbot | ≥ 3.5.0&&< 3.5.10 | 3.5.10pip install --upgrade 'red-discordbot==3.5.10' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for red-discordbot, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update red-discordbot to 3.5.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-5jq8-q6rj-9gq4 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.