CVE-2024-47876
📋 TL;DR
Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment versions 23.0 through 23.2 contain an authorization bypass vulnerability where users created with 'roleview' type can log in as normal users, granting unauthorized system access. This affects all Sakai deployments using vulnerable versions. The vulnerability allows privilege escalation from limited-view accounts to full user access.
💻 Affected Systems
- Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment
📦 What is this software?
Sakai by Sakailms
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers with roleview accounts gain full user privileges, potentially accessing sensitive student/teacher data, modifying course content, or performing administrative actions depending on system configuration.
Likely Case
Unauthorized access to confidential educational materials, grade manipulation, or disruption of learning activities by malicious actors with roleview accounts.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if roleview accounts are strictly controlled and monitored, but still represents an authorization failure that could be exploited.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires a roleview account but is trivial once obtained. The vulnerability is simple authentication logic bypass.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 23.3
Vendor Advisory: https://github.com/sakaiproject/sakai/security/advisories/GHSA-cx95-q6gx-w4qp
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Backup your Sakai installation and database. 2. Upgrade to Sakai version 23.3 or later. 3. Restart the Sakai application server. 4. Verify the fix by testing roleview account login attempts.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable or Remove Roleview Accounts
allTemporarily disable or delete all user accounts with roleview type until patching is complete.
# Check for roleview users in database
SELECT * FROM SAKAI_USER_ID_MAP WHERE TYPE = 'roleview';
# Disable or delete these accounts as appropriate for your deployment
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict monitoring and alerting for login attempts from roleview accounts
- Review and reduce the number of roleview accounts to absolute minimum required
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Sakai version via admin interface or by examining version files. If version is between 23.0 and 23.2 inclusive, the system is vulnerable.Check Version:
Check sakai.properties or version.txt in Sakai installation directory, or use admin interface version display.Verify Fix Applied:
After upgrading to 23.3+, attempt to log in with a roleview account - it should fail or have limited access as intended.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Successful login attempts from roleview-type users
- Unusual access patterns from previously limited accounts
- Authorization failure logs showing roleview users accessing restricted areas
Network Indicators:
- Increased traffic from roleview accounts accessing non-view-only endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="sakai.logs" AND (event_type="login_success" AND user_type="roleview") OR (event_type="authorization_failure" AND user_type="roleview")