MoodleCMS
CVE-2011-4287
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 · uneditedadmin/uploaduser_form.php in Moodle 2.0.x before 2.0.3 does not force password changes for autosubscribed users, which makes it easier for remote attackers to obtain access by leveraging knowledge of the initial password of a new user.
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 confidenceIn Moodle 2.0.x before 2.0.3, the admin/uploaduser_form.php script does not enforce password changes for users who are autosubscribed to courses during bulk user upload. This allows attackers with knowledge of initial passwords (from compromised enrollment lists or default password policies) to gain unauthorized access to user accounts without the legitimate user ever being prompted to change their default password.
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= 2.0.1= 2.0.2CVSS 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/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 installed Moodle versionNavigate to Site Administration > Server > Environment or check the version.php file in the Moodle root directory (usually contains $version and $release variables)Affected if The installed version is 2.0.0, 2.0.1, or 2.0.2
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Verify the vulnerable script existsCheck if the file admin/uploaduser_form.php exists in the Moodle installation directoryAffected if The file exists and the Moodle version is within the affected range
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Identify bulk-uploaded usersQuery the Moodle database (mdl_user table) for users with creation dates matching bulk upload operations, or check if any users exist who were created around the time of bulk uploads and have never changed their password. Look at the 'firstaccess' and 'lastlogin' fields, and check if 'mustchangepassword' field is set to 0 for users who should have been forced to change passwords.Affected if There are users in the system who were bulk uploaded and the 'mustchangepassword' flag is not set to 1 for them
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Check for default/unchanged passwordsReview user accounts that were created via bulk upload to see if they retain default passwords or initial passwords that have not been changed. Examine user records where password changes may not have been enforced.Affected if Users exist who were bulk uploaded and still use initial/default passwords without having been prompted to change them
A system is affected if it runs Moodle 2.0.0, 2.0.1, or 2.0.2 and has users who were bulk uploaded through admin/uploaduser_form.php without password change enforcement
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 2.0.3 or later. As a workaround, manually enforce password changes for newly uploaded users or implement additional controls on default password handling.
Fix this in Moodle
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-4287 — 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-2011-4287 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
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