CVE-2022-33913
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 · uneditedIn Mahara 21.04 before 21.04.6, 21.10 before 21.10.4, and 22.04.2, files can sometimes be downloaded through thumb.php with no permission check.
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 analysisThe application checks who you are but not whether you're allowed to perform a given action, so any authenticated user can reach things meant for others. This is the classic “change the ID in the URL” bug. The fix is an authorization check on every request, evaluated against the acting user's permissions.
General guidance for the missing authorization class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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>= 21.04.0, < 21.04.6>= 21.10.0, < 21.10.4= 22.04.2CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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.
dbcve · scoped21.04.621.10.4
21.04.6 (for 21.04.x), 21.10.4 (for 21.10.x), or a version after 22.04.2 (e.g., 22.04.3 or later)
- 1. Backup your Mahara database and files directory before performing any upgrade
- 2. Put your Mahara site into maintenance mode via the admin interface or by creating a 'var/stopupgrade' file
- 3. Download the appropriate fixed version of Mahara (21.04.6, 21.10.4, or a version after 22.04.2) from the official Mahara repository
- 4. Extract the new Mahara files, overwriting the existing installation while preserving your local configuration (config.php) and any custom themes or plugins in the 'artefact' and 'auth' directories
- 5. Run the upgrade script via command line (e.g., php htdocs/admin/cli/upgrade.php) or let the web-based upgrade process complete automatically after logging in as an admin
- 6. Verify the site is functioning correctly and the fix is applied by testing file access through thumb.php
- 7. Remove maintenance mode and restore full site access
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-33913 — 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-2022-33913 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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