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MaharaApplication

CVE-2024-39923

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 23.04.7 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
An issue was discovered in Mahara 24.04 before 24.04.2 and 23.04 before 23.04.7. The About, Contact, and Help footer links can be set up to be vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting (XSS) due to not sanitising the values. These links can only be set up by an admin but are clickable by any logged-in person.

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 confidence

A stored Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in Mahara's About, Contact, and Help footer links. Administrative users can inject malicious JavaScript into these link values, which then executes when any logged-in user clicks on the affected links. The vulnerability stems from a lack of input sanitization on these footer link parameters.

MitigationUpgrade Mahara to version 24.04.2 or 23.04.7 or later, which includes proper input sanitization for footer link values. Alternatively, implement output encoding/escaping on all user-supplied values before rendering them in the footer links.

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
MaharaApplication
Affected:>= 23.04.0, < 23.04.7>= 24.04.0, <= 24.04.2

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

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check your Mahara version
    Log into the Mahara admin dashboard and navigate to Administration -> Configuration -> Site options, or check the version file in your Mahara installation directory. The version is typically displayed on the admin homepage or in a VERSION file.
    Affected if The installed version is 23.04.0 through 23.04.6 (first range) OR 24.04.0 through 24.04.2 (second range). Versions outside these ranges are not affected.
  2. Verify admin access exists
    Check if any user account with administrative privileges exists in the Mahara system. Administrative users have the ability to modify footer link configuration in Site options.
    Affected if At least one admin user account exists and can access the Site options configuration area.
  3. Locate footer link configuration
    In the Mahara admin panel, navigate to Administration -> Configuration -> Site options (or equivalent). Look for fields labeled 'About', 'Contact', and 'Help' or similar footer link settings.
    Affected if These footer link configuration fields are present and accessible in the admin interface.
  4. Inspect footer link database storage
    If database access is available, query the config table (typically 'config' or 'artefact_config' table) for entries related to footer links. Look for keys containing 'footer' or specific link names like 'about', 'contact', 'help'.
    Affected if Database records storing these footer link values exist and can be inspected for injected script content.

You are affected if your Mahara version falls within 23.04.0-23.04.6 or 24.04.0-24.04.2 AND administrative users can access and modify the footer link configuration in Site options.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 23.04.7 or later
Fixed in 23.04.7
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Mahara to version 24.04.2 or 23.04.7 or later, which includes proper input sanitization for footer link values. Alternatively, implement output encoding/escaping on all user-supplied values before rendering them in the footer links.

Recommended fix High confidence

Mahara 23.04.7 or 24.04.2 (depending on your release line)

  1. Upgrade Mahara to version 23.04.7 or later for the 23.x release line
  2. Upgrade Mahara to version 24.04.2 or later for the 24.x release line
  3. After upgrading, verify that the About, Contact, and Help footer links configured by administrators are displaying correctly and no XSS payloads are executing

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

Fix this in Mahara Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

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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-2024-39923 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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