CVE-2023-5549 | Moodle: insufficient capability checks when updating the parent of a course category

Insufficient web service capability checks made it possible to move categories a user had permission to manage, to a parent category they did not have the capability to manage.

Published: 2023-11-09 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-5549 is rated Low Risk (28.2/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.56%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-5549

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.26% 0.56% +0.30%
2 2025-12-28 0.24% 0.26% +0.02%
3 2025-12-27 — 0.24% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-5549

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.3 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 1.4 [email protected]
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-5549

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-5549

GHSA-fm5h-58g2-4m3f · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: composer — Moodle Improper Access Control vulnerability

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-5549

vendor priority summary link
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-5549 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (moodle), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 8, needs-triage 3, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-5549

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-5549

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
moodle moodle < 3.9.24 cpe:2.3:a:moodle:moodle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
moodle moodle >= 3.11.0, < 3.11.17 cpe:2.3:a:moodle:moodle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
moodle moodle >= 4.0.0, < 4.0.11 cpe:2.3:a:moodle:moodle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
moodle moodle >= 4.1.0, < 4.1.6 cpe:2.3:a:moodle:moodle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
moodle moodle >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.3 cpe:2.3:a:moodle:moodle:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:a:fedoraproject:extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-5549

cvelogic Threat Intelligence