CVE-2023-28330: Moodle: authenticated arbitrary file read through malformed backup file

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-03-23 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-20

Description

Insufficient sanitizing in backup resulted in an arbitrary file read risk. The capability to access this feature is only available to teachers, managers and admins by default.

Affected products

Moodle: from 3.9.0 (excl.) before 3.9.20; from 3.11.0 (excl.) before 3.11.13; from 4.0.0 (excl.) before 4.0.7; 3.9.0, 3.11.0, 4.0.0, 4.1.0, 4.1.1 — fixed in 3.11.13, 3.9.20, 4.0.7

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Moodle 3.11.13, 3.9.20, 4.0.7. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2179412
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3QZN34VSF4HTCW3C3ZP2OZYSLYUKADPF/
https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=445062
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2179412
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/3QZN34VSF4HTCW3C3ZP2OZYSLYUKADPF/
https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=445062

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