CVE-2008-6540

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.1 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 2.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2009-03-30 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-264

Description

DotNetNuke before 4.8.2, during installation or upgrade, does not warn the administrator when the default (1) ValidationKey and (2) DecryptionKey values cannot be modified in the web.config file, which allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions by using the default keys.

Affected products

DotNetNuke CMS Fixed in 9.1.1: through 4.8.1; 1.0.6, 1.0.7, 1.0.8, 1.0.9, 1.0.10d, 1.0.10e (+10)

References

http://osvdb.org/43720
http://secunia.com/advisories/29488
http://www.dotnetnuke.com/News/SecurityBulletins/SecurityBulletinno12/tabid/1148/Default.aspx
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/489957/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/28391
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/41399
http://osvdb.org/43720
http://secunia.com/advisories/29488
http://www.dotnetnuke.com/News/SecurityBulletins/SecurityBulletinno12/tabid/1148/Default.aspx
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/489957/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/28391
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/41399

Get alerted when CVE-2008-6540 or the next vulnerability affects your stack