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MoodleCMS

CVE-2024-43435

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-11-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.1.12 / 4.2.9 or later.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
A flaw was found in moodle. Insufficient capability checks make it possible for users with access to restore glossaries in courses to restore them into the global site glossary.

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 · moderate confidence

This is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Moodle's glossary restore functionality. Insufficient capability checks allow users who only have permission to restore glossaries within individual courses to bypass restrictions and restore those glossaries into the global site glossary, which should require higher-level administrative permissions.

MitigationApply the vendor patch which adds proper capability verification checks before allowing glossary restoration to the global site glossary, ensuring only users with global glossary permissions can restore to the site-level glossary.

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
Affected:< 4.1.12>= 4.2.0, < 4.2.9>= 4.3.0, < 4.3.6>= 4.4.0, < 4.4.2

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 installed Moodle version
    Access Site Administration > Server > Environment page or check version.php in the Moodle root directory. Run: grep -i 'version' version.php | head -5
    Affected if The installed version falls within < 4.1.12, >= 4.2.0 and < 4.2.9, >= 4.3.0 and < 4.3.6, or >= 4.4.0 and < 4.4.2
  2. Verify glossary module is in use
    Navigate to Site Administration > Plugins > Plugins overview and check if the Glossary module is installed and enabled, or check for any course-level glossaries
    Affected if Glossary module is enabled and users have glossary restore permissions within courses
  3. Inspect glossary restore capability configuration
    Go to Site Administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles and review roles assigned 'moodle/restore:restore' or specific glossary-related capabilities. Check if any non-admin roles have glossary restore permissions
    Affected if Users with only course-level glossary permissions can perform restore operations
  4. Check for global site glossary accessibility
    Navigate to the site-level glossary (typically at /mod/glossary/view.php?id=1 or through Site Administration > Plugins > Modles > Glossary > Common glossary settings) and test whether users without admin privileges can restore glossaries to it
    Affected if Non-administrative users can restore glossaries into the global/site-level glossary when they should only have course-level restore access
  5. Review audit logs for glossary restore operations
    Access Site Administration > Reports > Logs and filter for 'glossary' and 'restore' events to identify any restore operations to site-level glossaries performed by non-admin users
    Affected if Restore events to the global glossary were performed by users lacking the moodle/glossary:managecategory capability

You are affected if your Moodle version is within the affected ranges AND users with only course-level glossary permissions can restore glossaries into the global site glossary.

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 4.1.12 / 4.2.9 / 4.3.6 or later
Fixed in 4.1.124.2.94.3.6
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor patch which adds proper capability verification checks before allowing glossary restoration to the global site glossary, ensuring only users with global glossary permissions can restore to the site-level glossary.

Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to the latest fixed version: 4.4.2 (or 4.3.6, 4.2.9, or 4.1.12 depending on your branch)

  1. 1. Back up the Moodle database and the moodledata directory before any upgrade.
  2. 2. Download the appropriate fixed version of Moodle from moodle.org/downloads (e.g., 4.1.12, 4.2.9, 4.3.6, or 4.4.2).
  3. 3. Place the site into maintenance mode via Site administration > Server > Maintenance mode.
  4. 4. Replace the existing Moodle installation files with the new version files, preserving config.php and any custom code in local/ or theme/ directories.
  5. 5. Run the upgrade by accessing the site via web browser or CLI: php admin/cli/upgrade.php
  6. 6. Confirm the upgrade completed successfully and the site is operational.
  7. 7. Verify that the capability checks are now properly enforced for glossary restoration.
Caveat Standard Moodle upgrade risks apply: review custom plugins/themes for compatibility, test in staging first

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

Fix this in Moodle Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.

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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-2024-43435 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