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CVE-2023-34962

8.1 HIGH
Authentication Bypass

📋 TL;DR

This vulnerability in Chamilo LMS allows students to access and modify other students' personal notes due to incorrect access control. It affects Chamilo v1.11.x up to v1.11.18. The flaw enables unauthorized data access and manipulation within the learning management system.

💻 Affected Systems

Products:
  • Chamilo LMS
Versions: v1.11.x up to v1.11.18
Operating Systems: All operating systems running Chamilo
Default Config Vulnerable: ⚠️ Yes
Notes: Affects all installations running vulnerable versions regardless of configuration.

📦 What is this software?

Chamilo Lms by Chamilo

View all CVEs affecting Chamilo Lms →

⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact

🔴

Worst Case

Mass data breach where all student notes are exposed and modified, potentially revealing sensitive personal information and causing academic disruption.

🟠

Likely Case

Targeted access to specific students' notes, leading to privacy violations, academic dishonesty, or harassment.

🟢

If Mitigated

No unauthorized access occurs due to proper access controls and monitoring.

🌐 Internet-Facing: HIGH - Chamilo LMS is typically deployed as a web application accessible over the internet, making it directly exploitable by authenticated students.
🏢 Internal Only: MEDIUM - Even if deployed internally, authenticated students within the organization can exploit this vulnerability.

🎯 Exploit Status

Public PoC: ✅ No
Weaponized: LIKELY
Unauthenticated Exploit: ✅ No
Complexity: LOW

Requires student-level authentication but exploitation is straightforward once authenticated.

🛠️ Fix & Mitigation

✅ Official Fix

Patch Version: v1.11.19 and later

Vendor Advisory: https://support.chamilo.org/projects/1/wiki/Security_issues#Issue-106-2023-04-15-Moderate-impact-Moderate-risk-A-student-can-access-and-modify-another-students-personal-notes

Restart Required: No

Instructions:

1. Backup your Chamilo installation and database. 2. Download Chamilo v1.11.19 or later from the official repository. 3. Replace vulnerable files with patched versions. 4. Clear application cache if applicable.

🔧 Temporary Workarounds

Disable Personal Notes Feature

all

Temporarily disable the personal notes functionality in Chamilo to prevent exploitation.

Edit Chamilo configuration to disable notes module

Access Control Enhancement

all

Implement additional access control checks at the application level.

Add session validation and user ID verification for notes access

🧯 If You Can't Patch

  • Implement network segmentation to isolate Chamilo servers from sensitive systems
  • Enable detailed logging and monitoring for unauthorized access attempts to notes functionality

🔍 How to Verify

Check if Vulnerable:

Check Chamilo version in administration panel or by examining version files in installation directory.

Check Version:

Check /main/inc/conf/configuration.php or administration panel for version number

Verify Fix Applied:

Test with two student accounts to ensure notes cannot be accessed cross-user after patching.

📡 Detection & Monitoring

Log Indicators:

  • Multiple notes access attempts from same user ID targeting different student IDs
  • Unusual notes modification patterns

Network Indicators:

  • HTTP requests to notes API endpoints with mismatched user IDs in parameters

SIEM Query:

source="chamilo_logs" AND (uri="/main/inc/ajax/notes.ajax.php" OR uri CONTAINS "notes") AND user_id != target_user_id

📊 Metadata

CVE ID: CVE-2023-34962
CVSS v3 Score: 8.1 (HIGH)
CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Published: June 8, 2023
Last Updated: January 6, 2025

🔗 References

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