Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-26045 is a high-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in Moodle Moodle. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059); ranked at the 43th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-26045 is a code injection vulnerability (CWE-94) in Moodle's backup restore functionality, published on 2026-02-21. The flaw occurs because specially crafted backup files are not properly validated during processing, potentially leading to unintended execution of server-side code when a malicious backup is restored. It affects Moodle instances where backup restoration is enabled.
Exploitation requires authenticated access with privileged user permissions, as restore capabilities are typically restricted to administrators or similar roles. An attacker with such access could upload and restore a malicious backup file over the network with low complexity and no user interaction, achieving high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts. This could result in full compromise of the Moodle server, with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.2 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H).
Red Hat advisories provide further details on the vulnerability, including mitigation and patching guidance, at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-26045, with an associated Bugzilla entry at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2440901.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-7390
Vulnerability Data
A flaw was identified in Moodle’s backup restore functionality where specially crafted backup files were not properly validated during processing. If a malicious backup file is restored, it could lead to unintended execution of server-side code. Since restore capabilities are…
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typically available to privileged users, exploitation requires authenticated access. Successful exploitation could result in full compromise of the Moodle server.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V1.3.1
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation finds code paths that accept and execute externally influenced strings.
Input validation directly stops untrusted data from being used to construct executable code without neutralization.
Least privilege limits the damage an injected code fragment can perform once executed.
Requiring documented secure development standards and tools enforces use of safe code-generation APIs and escaping.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
PR.PS-06's SDLC practices directly target injection flaws via secure coding and testing (mostly), yet as a single broad outcome it leaves many code-generation specifics unaddressed (partial).
PR.DS-10 protects runtime data confidentiality/integrity but has no bearing on neutralizing externally influenced input during code generation, so neither direction shows any preventive effect.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Banning unapproved code samples and unauthenticated web services, combined with secure-coding standards and SAST, prevents the dynamic generation or inclusion of attacker-supplied code.
Controls that restrict unauthorized or malicious code from being introduced via external networks or removable media limit opportunities for an attacker to inject and execute arbitrary code.