MoodleCMS

CVE-2022-50943

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.0.0 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Moodle LMS 4.0 contains a cross-site scripting vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious scripts by submitting payloads through the search parameter. Attackers can inject JavaScript code via the search field in course/search.php to execute arbitrary scripts in users' browsers and steal session cookies.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-79

Untrusted input is placed into a web page without being neutralised, so an attacker's markup or script executes in another user's browser. That can hijack sessions, capture keystrokes, or silently perform actions as the victim. Fixing it properly means context-aware output encoding everywhere data meets HTML, backed by a content-security policy as a second line of defence.

General guidance for the cross-site scripting (xss) 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
MoodleCMS
Affected:<= 4.0.0

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.0.0
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Moodle 4.0.1 or later (check moodle.org/security for exact fixed version)

  1. Check Moodle's official security announcements at moodle.org for the specific patch version addressing CVE-2022-50943
  2. Download the latest Moodle LTS (Long Term Support) release or the security patch for your current version
  3. Before applying, backup your Moodle database and moodledata directory
  4. Upload the new Moodle files to your server, replacing the existing installation
  5. Run the upgrade script by accessing your Moodle site via web browser
  6. Verify the course/search.php functionality works correctly after upgrade
  7. Clear all Moodle caches via Site Administration > Development > Purge caches
Caveat Review Moodle 4.0 release notes for potential breaking changes in upgrade process, especially regarding PHP version requirements and plugin compatibility

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $900. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-50943 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-50943 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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