# CVE-2019-9708: Business logic in n/a

> A site administrator can suspend the root user, locking all users out of the Mahara system and causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.9 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 May 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-87rc-mj2c-687h

## What is CVE-2019-9708?

CVE-2019-9708 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mahara Mahara, published on 7 May 2019. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Mahara 17.10 before 17.10.8, 18.04 before 18.04.4, and 18.10 before 18.10.1. A site administrator can suspend the system user (root), causing all users to be locked out from the system.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-9708?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mahara Mahara.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-9708?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-9708 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-9708 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-9708 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-2019-9708 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-9708 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Mahara Mahara, published on 7 May 2019. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-9708 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-2019-9708/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9708/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-9708
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9708
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-9708

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9708/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.