# CVE-2017-17454: Cross-site scripting in n/a

> An attacker can execute arbitrary scripts via invalid UTF-8 characters in Mahara, potentially leading to session hijacking or data theft.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 20 Feb 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-6q4p-5jg7-p386

## What is CVE-2017-17454?

CVE-2017-17454 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Mahara Mahara, published on 20 Feb 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Mahara 16.10 before 16.10.7 and 17.04 before 17.04.5 and 17.10 before 17.10.2 have a Cross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability when a user enters invalid UTF-8 characters. These are now going to be discarded in Mahara along with NULL characters and invalid Unicode characters. Mahara will also avoid direct $_GET and $_POST usage where possible, and instead use param_exists() and the correct param_*() function to fetch the expected value.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-17454?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mahara Mahara.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-17454?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-17454 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-17454 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-17454 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Mahara Mahara

- [CVE-2022-45134](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-45134/): Deserialization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-44544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-44544/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-40849](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-40849/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-1000152](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000152/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-1000153](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-1000153/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-17454 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-17454 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Mahara Mahara, published on 20 Feb 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-17454 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Mahara Mahara. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-17454/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-17454/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-17454
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-17454
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-17454

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-17454/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.