Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2025-68270

CRITICAL · 9.9 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-16
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click 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
The Open edX Platform is a learning management platform. Prior to commit 05d0d0936daf82c476617257aa6c35f0cd4ca060, CourseLimitedStaffRole users are able to access and edit courses in studio if they are granted the role on an org rather than on a course, and CourseLimitedStaffRole users are able to list courses they have the role on in studio even though they are not meant to have any access on the studio side for the course. Commit 05d0d0936daf82c476617257aa6c35f0cd4ca060 fixes the issue.

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

In Open edX Platform, the CourseLimitedStaffRole permission check incorrectly allows users granted this role at the organization level to access and modify courses in Studio, violating the intended design where these users should have no Studio access. Additionally, these users can list courses they're assigned to, exposing course information they shouldn't see.

MitigationApply the fix from commit 05d0d0936daf82c476617257aa6c35f0cd4ca060 to properly restrict CourseLimitedStaffRole users to learner-facing content only and prevent unauthorized course listing in Studio.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L

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. Identify CourseLimitedStaffRole assignments at organization level
    Query the platform's role assignment tables (e.g., CourseLimitedStaffRole, OrganizationRole) to list users granted CourseLimitedStaffRole at the organization (org) level rather than at the course-specific level. Use admin console or database queries to export role assignments with scope=organization.
    Affected if Any user account has CourseLimitedStaffRole granted at the organization level (not course-specific)
  2. Verify Studio access for org-level CourseLimitedStaffRole users
    Log in as a user who has CourseLimitedStaffRole at organization level and attempt to access Studio (the course authoring interface). Navigate to studio.edx.org or the local Studio URL and observe whether access is granted.
    Affected if Users with CourseLimitedStaffRole at org level can successfully load Studio pages or receive 200 OK responses rather than 403 Forbidden
  3. Test course listing exposure in Studio
    Using a user with CourseLimitedStaffRole at org level, access the Studio course list view (typically /courses) and enumerate the courses displayed. Compare against courses the user should legitimately access.
    Affected if The course list includes courses outside the user's legitimate scope or shows courses the user is not explicitly assigned to
  4. Confirm platform version against fix commit
    Locate the Open edX platform installation directory and identify the version tag or commit hash. Check if the code contains the fix from commit 05d0d0936daf82c476617257aa6c35f0cd4ca060 in the role permission logic.
    Affected if The installed platform version predates the fix commit and contains the vulnerable permission check code for CourseLimitedStaffRole

A user is affected if they have CourseLimitedStaffRole granted at the organization level and can access Studio or see courses they should not have access to, or if the platform version is older than the fix commit.

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.

From vendor data
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Apply the fix from commit 05d0d0936daf82c476617257aa6c35f0cd4ca060 to properly restrict CourseLimitedStaffRole users to learner-facing content only and prevent unauthorized course listing in Studio.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing5.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
17.0 hours of engineering $2,970
Get the patch applied

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,752.

Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2025-68270 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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