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MoodleCMS

CVE-2023-5544

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.9.24 / 3.11.17 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Patch available

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
Wiki comments required additional sanitizing and access restrictions to prevent a stored XSS risk and potential IDOR risk.

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:>= 3.9.0, < 3.9.24>= 3.11.0, < 3.11.17>= 4.0.0, < 4.0.11>= 4.1.0, < 4.1.6>= 4.2.0, < 4.2.3
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 37= 38= 39

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 3.9.24 / 3.11.17 / 4.0.11 or later
Fixed in 3.9.243.11.174.0.11
Vendor patch git.moodle.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to Moodle 3.9.24, 3.11.17, 4.0.11, or 4.1.6 depending on your current major version branch

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Moodle version by checking the version.php file in the Moodle root directory or via the admin interface.
  2. 2. Based on your current version line (3.9.x, 3.11.x, 4.0.x, or 4.1.x), plan your upgrade to the corresponding fixed release.
  3. 3. Before upgrading, perform a complete backup of the Moodle database, Moodle data directory (/moodledata), and Moodle code directory.
  4. 4. Put the Moodle site into maintenance mode via Site Administration > Server > Maintenance Mode.
  5. 5. Follow the standard Moodle upgrade process: unzip/extract the new Moodle version files, ensuring all new files replace old ones while preserving your config.php and any custom plugins.
  6. 6. Run the Moodle upgrade script by accessing the site URL, which will automatically trigger the database migration.
  7. 7. After successful upgrade, clear all Moodle caches via Site Administration > Development > Purge caches.
  8. 8. Verify the upgrade by logging in and checking that the wiki functionality works correctly.
Caveat Standard Moodle upgrades may require checking plugin compatibility with the new version; test thoroughly in a staging environment first

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $900. Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-5544 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