# CVE-2023-5539: Moodle: authenticated remote code execution risk in lesson

> Authenticated attackers can execute arbitrary code in the Moodle Lesson activity, posing a significant risk to system integrity.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 3 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** BIT-moodle-2023-5539, GHSA-3xxm-3g3c-w579, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-5539

## What is CVE-2023-5539?

CVE-2023-5539 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in Fedoraproject Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, published on 9 Nov 2023. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A remote code execution risk was identified in the Lesson activity. By default this was only available to teachers and managers.

Weakness: CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-5539?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including moodle/moodle and moodle. It affects 3 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `moodle/moodle` | Packagist | All versions | 4.3.0-rc2 |
| `moodle/moodle` | Packagist | All versions | 4.3.0-rc2 |
| `moodle` | Bitnami | All versions | 3.9.24, 3.11.17, 4.0.11, 4.1.6, 4.2.3 |

Products: Fedoraproject Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Moodle Moodle.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-5539?

Upgrade moodle/moodle to 4.3.0-rc2 or later.

## Is CVE-2023-5539 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5539 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux

- [CVE-2023-34152](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-34152/): Command injection in ImageMagick (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-4170](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-4170/): Code injection in rxvt-unicode (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-40315](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-40315/): Moodle Minor SQL injection risk in admin user browsing (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2022-45152](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-45152/): Moodle blind Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in LTI provider library (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2022-24882](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-24882/): Server side NTLM does not properly check parameters in FreeRDP (critical 9.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-5539 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-5539 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in Fedoraproject Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, published on 9 Nov 2023. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5539 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- moodle/moodle (Packagist): affected all versions; fixed in 4.3.0-rc2
- moodle/moodle (Packagist): affected all versions; fixed in 4.3.0-rc2
- moodle (Bitnami): affected all versions; fixed in 3.9.24, 3.11.17, 4.0.11, 4.1.6, 4.2.3

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-2023-5539/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5539/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-5539
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-5539
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-5539

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5539/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.