openedx/openedx-platform

Open edX Platform enables the authoring and delivery of online learning at any scale. The HTML sanitizer clean_thread_html_body() used for discussion notification emails fails to remove <style> tags from user-generated discussion post content. This content is rendered with Django's |safe template filter in email notification templates, allowing any enrolled student to inject arbitrary CSS into email notifications sent to other users. This enables email tracking (IP address disclosure), content spoofing, and phishing attacks. This vulnerability is fixed with commit cddc25cd791bb78f76833896e4778f668861df12.

Open edX Platform enables the authoring and delivery of online learning at any scale. The sync_provider_data endpoint in SAMLProviderDataViewSet allows authenticated Enterprise Admin users to supply an arbitrary URL via the metadata_url POST parameter. This URL is passed directly to requests.get() in fetch_metadata_xml() without any URL validation, IP filtering, or scheme enforcement. An attacker with Enterprise Admin privileges can force the server to make HTTP requests to internal network services, cloud metadata endpoints (e.g., AWS 169.254.169.254), or other attacker-controlled destinations. This vulnerability is fixed by commit 6fda1f120ff5a590d120ae1180185525f399c6d0 and 70a56246dd9c9df57c596e64bdd8a11b1d9da054.

Open edX Platform enables the authoring and delivery of online learning at any scale. The view_survey endpoint accepts a redirect_url GET parameter that is passed directly to HttpResponseRedirect() without any URL validation. When a non-existent survey name is provided, the server issues an immediate HTTP 302 redirect to the attacker-controlled URL. Additionally, the same unvalidated URL is embedded in a hidden form field and returned in a JSON response after form submission, where client-side JavaScript performs location.href = url. This enables phishing and credential theft attacks against authenticated Open edX users. This vulnerability is fixed with commit 76462f1e5fa9b37d2621ad7ad19514b403908970.

Open edX Platform enables the authoring and delivery of online learning at any scale. From the maple release to before the ulmo release, an unauthenticated attacker can fully bypass the email verification process by combining two issues: the OAuth2 password grant issuing tokens to inactive users (documented behavior) and the activation_key being exposed in the REST API response at /api/user/v1/accounts/. This issue has been patched in the ulmo release.

The Open edX Platform is a learning management platform. Prior to commit 05d0d0936daf82c476617257aa6c35f0cd4ca060, CourseLimitedStaffRole users are able to access and edit courses in studio if they are granted the role on an org rather than on a course, and CourseLimitedStaffRole users are able to list courses they have the role on in studio even though they are not meant to have any access on the studio side for the course. Commit 05d0d0936daf82c476617257aa6c35f0cd4ca060 fixes the issue.

The Open edX Platform is a learning management platform. Prior to commit 6740e75c0fdc7ba095baf88e9f5e4f3e15cfd8ba, edxapp has no built-in protection against downloading the python_lib.zip asset from courses, which is a concern since it often contains custom grading code or answers to course problems. This potentially affects any course using custom Python-graded problem blocks. The openedx/configuration repo has had a patch since 2016 in the form of an nginx rule, but this was only intended as a temporary mitigation. As the configuration repo has been deprecated and we have not been able to locate any similar protection in Tutor, it is likely that most deployments have no protection against python_lib.zip being downloaded. The recommended mitigation, implemented in commit 6740e75c0fdc7ba095baf88e9f5e4f3e15cfd8ba, restricts python_lib.zip downloads to just the course team and site staff/superusers.

The Open edX Platform is a learning management platform. Instructors can upload csv files containing learner information to create cohorts in the instructor dashboard. These files are uploaded using the django default storage. With certain storage backends, uploads may become publicly available when the uploader uses versions master, palm, olive, nutmeg, maple, lilac, koa, or juniper. The patch in commit cb729a3ced0404736dfa0ae768526c82b608657b ensures that cohorts data uploaded to AWS S3 buckets is written with a private ACL. Beyond patching, deployers should also ensure that existing cohorts uploads have a private ACL, or that other precautions are taken to avoid public access.

Open edX Platform is a service-oriented platform for authoring and delivering online learning. A user with a JWT and more limited scopes could call endpoints exceeding their access. This vulnerability has been patched in commit 019888f.

edx-platform before 2018-07-18 allows XSS via a response to a Chemical Equation advanced problem.

edx-platform before 2017-08-03 allows attackers to trigger password-reset e-mail messages in which the reset link has an attacker-controlled domain name.

edx-platform before 2016-06-06 allows CSRF.

Open edX edx-platform before 2015-08-25 requires use of the database for storage of SAML SSO secrets, which makes it easier for context-dependent attackers to obtain sensitive information by leveraging access to a database backup.