Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Mahara versions before 16.10.9, 17.04.7, and 17.10.4 did not sufficiently clean submitted content on the server side when TinyMCE client-side filtering was bypassed. An attacker able to submit crafted POST data could send content that the editor would normally strip. The public sources do not provide CVSS, CWE, or confirmed exploitation.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation if Mahara is internet-facing or accepts untrusted user content. Urgency is hard to quantify because the public record lacks CVSS, impact detail, and exploitation evidence, but the weakness affects a security boundary: server-side content validation.
Technical view
CVE-2018-6182 concerns insufficient server-side input cleaning in Mahara. The issue arises when POST data bypasses TinyMCE filtering, showing Mahara relied too heavily on client-side code stripping. The source bundle identifies affected release lines only by fixed thresholds: 16.10.9, 17.04.7, and 17.10.4.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely for organizations still running Mahara 16.10 before 16.10.9, 17.04 before 17.04.7, or 17.10 before 17.10.4. The bundle does not identify affected modules, roles, required authentication, or deployment-specific prerequisites.
Exploitation context
The issue requires sending crafted POST data that bypasses TinyMCE’s client-side filtering. The provided sources do not report active exploitation, public exploit tooling, KEV listing, or a complete impact description. Treat exploitation evidence as incomplete.
Researcher notes
The CVE record is sparse. It supports version-based exposure and the root cause: bypassing TinyMCE with POST data and missing server-side cleaning. It does not clearly state impact, affected endpoints, privilege requirements, or exploit maturity. Avoid assuming XSS unless confirmed by vendor details.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade Mahara to 16.10.9, 17.04.7, 17.10.4, or later for the matching branch.
- Review the Mahara bug report and forum advisory for branch-specific guidance.
- Ensure submitted rich-text content is cleaned on the PHP server side.
- Do not rely on TinyMCE client-side stripping as the sole content filter.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Mahara installations and record exact version numbers.
- Confirm no instance runs below the fixed versions listed for its branch.
- Review content-handling code or configuration for server-side input cleaning.
- Check user-generated rich-text content for unexpected embedded markup.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2018-6182 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/1744789CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=8215CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.