MoodleCMS
CVE-2011-4285
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 · uneditedThe default configuration of Moodle 2.0.x before 2.0.2 has an incorrect setting of the moodle/course:delete capability, which allows remote authenticated users to delete arbitrary courses by leveraging the teacher role.
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 confidenceMoodle 2.0.x before 2.0.2 shipped with an incorrect default role capability assignment where the 'teacher' role was granted the moodle/course:delete capability globally rather than scoped to courses they are assigned to. This allowed any authenticated teacher to delete any course in the system regardless of their enrollment, representing a vertical privilege escalation via access control misconfiguration.
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
= 2.0.0= 2.0.1CVSS 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
- Single
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Moodle versionLog in as administrator and go to Site administration > Server > System paths, or check the version.php file in the Moodle root directory (usually /lib/version.php). Look for the $release or $version variable.Affected if Version is 2.0.0 or 2.0.1 (only these versions are affected by this CVE)
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Navigate to Teacher role capabilitiesGo to Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles, then click on the 'Teacher' role.Affected if The Moodle version is 2.0.0 or 2.0.1 (proceed to next check)
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Locate moodle/course:delete capabilityIn the Teacher role editing page, find the 'moodle/course:delete' capability in the list of capabilities.Affected if This capability exists in the Teacher role (required for the vulnerability to exist)
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Check capability scopeClick on the 'moodle/course:delete' capability name to view its assignment details. Check the 'Context' column to see if it is assigned at 'System' level rather than restricted to 'Course' or 'Course category' context.Affected if The capability is assigned at System context (globally) rather than being restricted to specific course contexts - this indicates the vulnerable misconfiguration
The environment is affected if running Moodle 2.0.0 or 2.0.1 AND the Teacher role has moodle/course:delete capability assigned at the System (global) context.
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 2.0.2 or later which corrects the default capability configuration, or manually modify the Teacher role definition to restrict moodle/course:delete to only courses where the user is enrolled as teacher.
Fix this in Moodle
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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 $1,376.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-4285 — 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-2011-4285 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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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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