CVE-2012-1169 in Moodle
Summary
by MITRE
Moodle before 2.2.2 has Personal information disclosure, when administrative setting users name display is set to first name only full names are shown in page breadcrumbs.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/15/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2012-1169 affects Moodle learning management systems version 2.2.1 and earlier, representing a privacy and information disclosure weakness that compromises user data protection. This issue stems from improper handling of user name display settings within the administrative configuration, creating a scenario where sensitive personal information is exposed through navigation breadcrumbs. The vulnerability specifically manifests when the administrative setting for user name display is configured to show only first names, yet full names appear in page navigation elements, violating expected privacy controls and exposing more personal information than intended.
The technical flaw resides in the inconsistency between the configured user display preferences and the actual rendering of user information within the application's breadcrumb navigation system. When administrators set the user name display to show only first names, the system should consistently enforce this restriction across all user interface elements. However, the vulnerability allows full names to appear in breadcrumbs, creating a mismatch between configuration settings and actual information disclosure. This represents a classic case of insufficient input validation and output encoding, where user data is not properly filtered according to security policies. The issue falls under the broader category of information exposure vulnerabilities that can be categorized as CWE-200, which deals with information exposure through improper information handling.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privacy concerns to potentially enable social engineering attacks and identity harvesting by malicious actors who can collect more personal information than intended through navigation breadcrumbs. Attackers can exploit this weakness to gather full names of users, which may be combined with other publicly available information to construct more comprehensive user profiles. This exposure of full names in navigation elements can be particularly problematic in educational environments where user privacy is paramount and where students and staff may be targeted for identity theft or phishing attacks. The vulnerability undermines the trust in the system's privacy controls and can lead to compliance issues with data protection regulations such as GDPR or FERPA.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing proper configuration validation and ensuring that all user display settings are consistently enforced throughout the application interface. Organizations should immediately upgrade to Moodle version 2.2.2 or later, which contains the necessary patches to address this issue. Additionally, administrators should conduct thorough reviews of all user display settings and navigation elements to ensure consistency in information disclosure policies. The remediation process should include implementing proper access controls for administrative settings and ensuring that breadcrumb navigation systems properly respect user privacy configurations. This vulnerability also highlights the importance of following secure coding practices and conducting regular security assessments to identify inconsistencies between configuration settings and actual system behavior, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1566 for credential access through information discovery and T1083 for file and directory discovery. Organizations should establish comprehensive testing procedures that verify the consistency of privacy controls across all user interface elements to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in the future.