GHSA-f5r8-7h4f-jr9x BIT-moodle-2020-25629 CVE-2020-25629
Moodle incorrect access control
- Severity
- 8.8 / 10
- High · CVSS 3.1
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 1.32%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 70.85% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Fix
3.9.2- Upgrade moodle/moodle to this version or later
Description
A vulnerability was found in Moodle where users with "Log in as" capability in a course context (typically, course managers) may gain access to some site administration capabilities by "logging in as" a System manager. This affects 3.9 to 3.9.1, 3.8 to 3.8.4, 3.7 to 3.7.7, 3.5 to 3.5.13 and earlier unsupported versions. This is fixed in 3.9.2, 3.8.5, 3.7.8 and 3.5.14.
Affected versions
Packagist
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| moodle/moodle | >= 3.9, < 3.9.2 |
3.9.2 |
| moodle/moodle | >= 3.8, < 3.8.5 |
3.8.5 |
| moodle/moodle | >= 3.7, < 3.7.8 |
3.7.8 |
| moodle/moodle | >= 3.5, < 3.5.14 |
3.5.14 |
How to fix
Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.
moodle/moodle Packagist → 3.9.2
- composer
composer require moodle/moodle:^3.9.2
Severity breakdown
CVSS 3.1 8.8
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Weakness
CWE-284: Improper Access Control
The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor.
How to prevent it
- Architecture and Design, Operation: Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
- Architecture and Design: Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.
CWE-862: Missing Authorization
The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.
How to prevent it
- Architecture and Design: Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries. Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
- Architecture and Design: Ensure that access control checks are performed related to the business logic. These checks may be different than the access control checks that are applied to more generic resources such as files, connections, processes, memory, and database records. For example, a database may restrict access for medical records to a specific database user, but each record might only be intended to be accessible to the patient and the patient's doctor [REF-7].
- Architecture and Design: Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid. For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
- Architecture and Design: For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page. One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.
- System Configuration, Installation: Use the access control capabilities of your operating system and server environment and define your access control lists accordingly. Use a "default deny" policy when defining these ACLs.
References
Advisories
Packages
Other links
Timeline
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why it's related |
|---|---|---|
| GHSA-cg8j-5cr2-568q Moodle TeX formula editor is vulnerable to DoS through lack of execution time limits | Medium | Also affects moodle/moodle |
| GHSA-ggxq-2mg9-8966 Moodle has a Remote Code Execution risk via file restore | High | Also affects moodle/moodle |
| GHSA-8jrv-wx83-w3xj Moodle Inserts Sensitive Information Into Sent Data | Medium | Also affects moodle/moodle |
| GHSA-hcm6-q6pc-xfhm Moodle has an authorization logic flaw | Critical | Also affects moodle/moodle |
| GHSA-vwhw-vp9v-q9c9 Moodle vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting | Medium | Also affects moodle/moodle |
| GHSA-5cx4-w4fh-fr57 Moodle Affected by Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts | High | Also affects moodle/moodle |
| GHSA-qv78-6gpp-hm68 Moodle Open Redirect vulnerability | Medium | Also affects moodle/moodle |
| GHSA-qfh6-h7j6-fvjv Moodle formula injection vulnerability | High | Also affects moodle/moodle |
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