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MoodleCMS

CVE-2009-0499

MEDIUM · 6.4 CVSS v2.0 Published 2009-02-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the forum code in Moodle 1.7 before 1.7.7, 1.8 before 1.8.8, and 1.9 before 1.9.4 allows remote attackers to delete unauthorized forum posts via a link or IMG tag to post.php.

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 · high confidence

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Moodle's forum module allows remote attackers to delete unauthorized forum posts by tricking authenticated users into clicking malicious links or loading crafted IMG tags that submit requests to post.php without the user's consent.

MitigationUpgrade Moodle to version 1.7.7, 1.8.8, or 1.9.4 or later, which includes anti-CSRF token validation in the forum post.php functionality.

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
Affected:= 1.7.1= 1.7.2= 1.7.3= 1.7.4= 1.7.5= 1.7.6= 1.8.1= 1.8.2= 1.8.3= 1.8.4= 1.8.5= 1.8.6

CVSS 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
None
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine installed Moodle version
    Check the version.php file in your Moodle root directory, or access the admin page /admin/index.php which displays the installed version.
    Affected if The installed version is any of: 1.7.1, 1.7.2, 1.7.3, 1.7.4, 1.7.5, 1.7.6, 1.8.1, 1.8.2, 1.8.3, 1.8.4, 1.8.5, or 1.8.6
  2. Verify forum module is active
    Log in as administrator and navigate to Site Administration > Modules > Manage activities, or check if the forum activity module is present and enabled in any course.
    Affected if The forum module is installed and enabled on the Moodle site
  3. Inspect post.php for CSRF protection
    Locate the file mod/forum/post.php in your Moodle installation and examine its code for the presence of require_login() and any CSRF token validation (such as checking for a sesskey or form token).
    Affected if The post.php file lacks CSRF token validation or does not verify a session key before processing delete actions

You are affected if your Moodle installation runs version 1.7.1-1.7.6 or 1.8.1-1.8.6, has the forum module enabled, and the forum post.php lacks CSRF token validation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade Moodle to version 1.7.7, 1.8.8, or 1.9.4 or later, which includes anti-CSRF token validation in the forum post.php functionality.

Fix this in Moodle Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2009-0499 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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