What is CVE-2016-5013?

CVE-2016-5013 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Moodle, classified under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection). CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2017-01-20.

How severe is CVE-2016-5013?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Moodle

CVE-2016-5013

In Moodle 2.x and 3.x, text injection can occur in email headers, potentially leading to outbound spam.

Published 2017-01-20 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.4 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.011 (63.1th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 63rd percentile — 63.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.011 · newest: 0.011 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Moodle — versions 2.8.0, 2.8.1, 2.8.2

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-74 — Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection)

References

moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php (Patch, Mitigation, Vendor Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/92040 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-5013?: CVE-2016-5013 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Moodle, classified under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection). CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2017-01-20.
How severe is CVE-2016-5013?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.