MoodleCMS
CVE-2006-4940
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedlogin/forgot_password.php in Moodle before 1.6.2 allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information (e-mail addresses and Moodle account names) via a find action.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceThe forgot_password.php script in Moodle versions prior to 1.6.2 contains an information disclosure vulnerability allowing remote attackers to enumerate valid user email addresses and account names through the 'find' action in the password recovery function.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
MoodleCMS
<= 1.6.1= 1.6.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Moodle versionLocate the version.php file in your Moodle installation directory (typically /lib/version.php or check the Moodle admin interface under Server > Environment or Site Administration > Server > Environment). Look for the $release or $version variable to determine the exact version number.Affected if The installed version is 1.6.0 or any version <= 1.6.1 (e.g., 1.6.0, 1.5.9, 1.5.8, etc.)
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Verify forgot_password.php exists and is accessibleCheck if the file forgot_password.php exists in the root directory of your Moodle installation and is accessible via HTTP/HTTPS (e.g., https://your-moodle-site.com/forgot_password.php).Affected if The file exists and responds to requests, indicating the password recovery function is available.
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Confirm the 'find' action is enabledExamine the forgot_password.php script or test the password recovery form by submitting a request with the 'find' action parameter (e.g., ?action=find or through the form submission). Verify the script processes this action without requiring authentication.Affected if The 'find' action in the password recovery function is processing requests without rate limiting or authentication, allowing password reset token requests.
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Test for user enumeration response differenceSubmit two password reset requests: one with a known-valid email address registered in Moodle and one with a random/non-existent email address. Compare the HTTP response messages or behavior.Affected if The responses differ significantly (e.g., one says 'Email sent' while the other says 'Email address not found' or similar), indicating the script reveals whether an email address is registered in the system.
You are affected if your Moodle version is 1.6.0 or any version <= 1.6.1 and the forgot_password.php script with the 'find' action is accessible without rate limiting, allowing an attacker to distinguish between valid and invalid email addresses.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to Moodle 1.6.2 or later to obtain the patched version of forgot_password.php. As a temporary workaround, implement rate limiting or generic error responses to prevent user enumeration via the password reset function.
Fix this in Moodle
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-4940 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2006-4940 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data