MoodleCMS
CVE-2012-2357
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 Multi-Authentication feature in the Central Authentication Service (CAS) functionality in auth/cas/cas_form.html in Moodle 2.1.x before 2.1.6 and 2.2.x before 2.2.3 does not use HTTPS, which allows remote attackers to obtain credentials by sniffing the network.
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 confidenceThe Multi-Authentication CAS feature in Moodle 2.1.x before 2.1.6 and 2.2.x before 2.2.3 serves the authentication form (auth/cas/cas_form.html) over HTTP instead of HTTPS, transmitting user credentials in cleartext that can be intercepted via network sniffing.
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
= 2.1.0= 2.1.1= 2.1.2= 2.1.3= 2.1.4= 2.1.5= 2.2.0= 2.2.1= 2.2.2CVSS 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
- 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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Confirm CAS authentication is enabledCheck your Moodle configuration for CAS (Central Authentication Service) module at Site Administration > Plugins > Authentication > Manage authentication, or inspect the config.php file for $CFG->auth = 'cas'Affected if CAS authentication is enabled as an active authentication method
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Verify the installed Moodle versionCheck the version.php file in the Moodle root directory, or look at Site Administration > Server > Environment > Moodle versionAffected if The installed version is 2.1.0 through 2.1.5 or 2.2.0 through 2.2.2
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Determine if the CAS form is accessible over HTTPAttempt to access http://yourmoodle/auth/cas/cas_form.html (replace yourmoodle with your actual domain). Use curl or a browser to see if the login form loads over HTTP.Affected if The CAS login form loads successfully over HTTP (non-encrypted connection)
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Inspect CAS server configurationCheck Site Administration > Plugins > Authentication > CAS server (NTLM) or inspect the auth/cas configuration in config.php for base_url and hostname settingsAffected if The CAS server URL is configured without enforcing HTTPS transport
A user is affected if CAS authentication is enabled, the Moodle version falls within 2.1.0-2.1.5 or 2.2.0-2.2.2, and the CAS authentication form can be accessed over an unencrypted HTTP connection.
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 dataConfigure Moodle and the web server to enforce HTTPS for all CAS authentication traffic, ensuring the login form is only served over encrypted connections.
Fix this in Moodle
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 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 $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-2357 — 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-2012-2357 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