What is CVE-2023-5549?

CVE-2023-5549 is a low-severity vulnerability in Moodle, classified under Improper Access Control. CVSS score: 3.3/10. Published 2023-11-09.

How severe is CVE-2023-5549?

Low severity. CVSS v3 base score is 3.3 out of 10.

Is CVE-2023-5549 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Privilege escalation in Moodle

CVE-2023-5549

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 modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 3.3 (Low). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.006 (44.6th percentile), scored 2026-10-02.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 45th percentile — 44.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.006 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Moodle
Fedoraproject Extra Packages For Enterprise Linux — versions 7.0
Fedoraproject Fedora — versions 38

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

jev770/badmoodle-scan

References

git.moodle.org/gw (Patch)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (issue-tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)
moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php (Patch, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-5549?: CVE-2023-5549 is a low-severity vulnerability in Moodle, classified under Improper Access Control. CVSS score: 3.3/10. Published 2023-11-09.
How severe is CVE-2023-5549?: Low severity. CVSS v3 base score is 3.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2023-5549 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.