The TeX filter in Moodle 1.6 before 1.6.9+, 1.7 before 1.7.7+, 1.8 before 1.8.9, and 1.9 before 1.9.5 allows user-assisted attackers to read arbitrary files via an input command in a "$$" sequence, which causes LaTeX to include the contents of the file.

Special command sequences in TeX files allowed users to read arbitrary files (CVE-2009-1171).

Christian Eibl discovered that the TeX filter in Moodle allowed any function to be used. An authenticated remote attacker could post a specially crafted TeX formula to execute arbitrary TeX functions, potentially reading any file accessible to the web server user, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-1171, MSA-09-0009).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Thor Larholm discovered that PHPMailer, as used by Moodle, did not correctly escape email addresses. A local attacker with direct access to the Moodle database could exploit this to execute arbitrary commands as the web server user. (CVE-2007-3215)

Nigel McNie discovered that fetching https URLs did not correctly escape shell meta-characters. An authenticated remote attacker could execute arbitrary commands as the web server user, if curl was installed and configured. (CVE-2008-4796, MSA-09-0003)

It was discovered that Smarty (also included in Moodle), did not correctly filter certain inputs. An authenticated remote attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary PHP commands as the web server user. (CVE-2008-4810, CVE-2008-4811, CVE-2009-1669)

It was discovered that the unused SpellChecker extension in Moodle did not correctly handle temporary files. If the tool had been locally modified, it could be made to overwrite arbitrary local files via symlinks. (CVE-2008-5153)

Mike Churchward discovered that Moodle did not correctly filter Wiki page titles in certain areas. An authenticated remote attacker could exploit this to cause cross-site scripting (XSS), which could be used to modify or steal confidential data of other users within the same web domain. (CVE-2008-5432, MSA-08-0022)

It was discovered that the HTML sanitizer, 'Login as' feature, and logging in Moodle did not correctly handle certain inputs. An authenticated remote attacker could exploit this to generate XSS, which could be used to modify or steal confidential data of other users within the same web domain. (CVE-2008-5619, CVE-2009-0500, CVE-2009-0502, MSA-08-0026, MSA-09-0004, MSA-09-0007)

It was discovered that the HotPot module in Moodle did not correctly filter SQL inputs. An authenticated remote attacker could execute arbitrary SQL commands as the moodle database user, leading to a loss of privacy or denial of service. (CVE-2008-6124, MSA-08-0010)

Kevin Madura discovered that the forum actions and messaging settings in Moodle were not protected from cross-site request forgery (CSRF).
If an authenticated user were tricked into visiting a malicious website while logged into Moodle, a remote attacker could change the user's configurations or forum content. (CVE-2009-0499, MSA-09-0008, MSA-08-0023)

Daniel Cabezas discovered that Moodle would leak usernames from the Calendar Export tool. A remote attacker could gather a list of users, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-0501, MSA-09-0006)

Christian Eibl discovered that the TeX filter in Moodle allowed any function to be used. An authenticated remote attacker could post a specially crafted TeX formula to execute arbitrary TeX functions, potentially reading any file accessible to the web server user, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-1171, MSA-09-0009)

Johannes Kuhn discovered that Moodle did not correctly validate user permissions when attempting to switch user accounts. An authenticated remote attacker could switch to any other Moodle user, leading to a loss of privacy. (MSA-08-0003)

Hanno Boeck discovered that unconfigured Moodle instances contained XSS vulnerabilities. An unauthenticated remote attacker could exploit this to modify or steal confidential data of other users within the same web domain. (MSA-08-0004)

Debbie McDonald, Mauno Korpelainen, Howard Miller, and Juan Segarra Montesinos discovered that when users were deleted from Moodle, their profiles and avatars were still visible. An authenticated remote attacker could exploit this to store information in profiles even after they were removed, leading to spam traffic. (MSA-08-0015, MSA-09-0001, MSA-09-0002)

Lars Vogdt discovered that Moodle did not correctly filter certain inputs. An authenticated remote attacker could exploit this to generate XSS from which they could modify or steal confidential data of other users within the same web domain. (MSA-08-0021)

It was discovered that Moodle did not correctly filter inputs for group creation, mnet, essay question, HOST param, wiki param, and others. An authenticated remote attacker could exploit this to generate XSS from which they could modify or steal confidential data of other users within the same web domain. (MDL-9288, MDL-11759, MDL-12079, MDL-12793, MDL-14806)

It was discovered that Moodle did not correctly filter SQL inputs when performing a restore. An attacker authenticated as a Moodle administrator could execute arbitrary SQL commands as the moodle database user, leading to a loss of privacy or denial of service.
(MDL-11857).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

CVE-2009-1171: The TeX filter in Moodle 1.6 before 1.6.9+, 1.7 before 1.7.7+, 1.8 before 1.8.9, and 1.9 before 1.9.5 allows user-assisted attackers to read arbitrary files via an input command in a '$$' sequence, which causes LaTeX to include the contents of the file.
Upstream bug and CVS commit:
http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-18552 http://cvs.moodle.org/moodle/filter/tex/filter.php?r1=1.18.4.4&r2=1.18 .4.5

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Christian J. Eibl discovered that the TeX filter of Moodle, a web-based course management system, doesn't check user input for certain TeX commands which allows an attacker to include and display the content of arbitrary system files.

Note that this doesn't affect installations that only use the mimetex environment.

The TeX filter included with the installed version of Moodle can be exploited to reveal the contents of files on the remote host, subject to the privileges under which the web server operates.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
40277	openSUSE Security Update : moodle (moodle-803)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
40070	openSUSE Security Update : moodle (moodle-803)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
39517	Ubuntu 9.04 : moodle vulnerability (USN-791-2)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	medium
39516	Ubuntu 8.04 LTS / 8.10 : moodle vulnerabilities (USN-791-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	critical
36905	Fedora 10 : moodle-1.9.4-6.fc10 (2009-3280)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
36204	openSUSE 10 Security Update : moodle (moodle-6198)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
36084	Debian DSA-1761-1 : moodle - missing input sanitization	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	medium
36077	Fedora 9 : moodle-1.9.4-6.fc9 (2009-3283)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	medium
36050	Moodle LaTeX Information Disclosure	Nessus	CGI abuses	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2009-1171

high

Tenable Plugins

medium

medium

medium

critical

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium