CVE-2023-23611

LTI Consumer XBlock implements the consumer side of the LTI specification enabling integration of third-party LTI provider tools. Versions 7.0.0 and above, prior to 7.2.2, are vulnerable to Missing Authorization. Any LTI tool that is integrated with on the Open edX platform can post a grade back for any LTI XBlock so long as it knows or can guess the block location for that XBlock. An LTI tool submits scores to the edX platform for line items. The code that uploads that score to the LMS grade tables determines which XBlock to upload the grades for by reading the resource_link_id field of the associated line item. The LTI tool may submit any value for the resource_link_id field, allowing a malicious LTI tool to submit scores for any LTI XBlock on the platform. The impact is a loss of integrity for LTI XBlock grades. This issue is patched in 7.2.2. No workarounds exist.

Weakness

The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

Affected Software

Extended Description

Assuming a user with a given identity, authorization is the process of determining whether that user can access a given resource, based on the user’s privileges and any permissions or other access-control specifications that apply to the resource. When access control checks are not applied, users are able to access data or perform actions that they should not be allowed to perform. This can lead to a wide range of problems, including information exposures, denial of service, and arbitrary code execution.

Potential Mitigations

• Divide the product into anonymous, normal, privileged, and administrative areas. Reduce the attack surface by carefully mapping roles with data and functionality. Use role-based access control (RBAC) [REF-229] to enforce the roles at the appropriate boundaries.
• Note that this approach may not protect against horizontal authorization, i.e., it will not protect a user from attacking others with the same role.
• Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
• For example, consider using authorization frameworks such as the JAAS Authorization Framework [REF-233] and the OWASP ESAPI Access Control feature [REF-45].
• For web applications, make sure that the access control mechanism is enforced correctly at the server side on every page. Users should not be able to access any unauthorized functionality or information by simply requesting direct access to that page.
• One way to do this is to ensure that all pages containing sensitive information are not cached, and that all such pages restrict access to requests that are accompanied by an active and authenticated session token associated with a user who has the required permissions to access that page.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/665.html

References

• https://github.com/openedx/xblock-lti-consumer/security/advisories/GHSA-7j9p-67mm-5g87
• https://github.com/openedx/xblock-lti-consumer/security/advisories/GHSA-7j9p-67mm-5g87