CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-40021 — Oppia is an online learning platform

Medium CVSS 5.3

Oppia is an online learning platform. When comparing a received CSRF token against the expected token, Oppia uses the string equality operator (`==`), which is not safe against timing attacks. By repeatedly submitting invalid tokens, an attacker can brute-force the expected CSRF token character by character. Once they have recovered the token, they can then submit a forged request on behalf of a logged-in user and execute privileged actions on that user's behalf. In particular the function to validate received CSRF tokens is at `oppia.core.controllers.base.CsrfTokenManager.is_csrf_token_valid`. An attacker who can lure a logged-in Oppia user to a malicious website can perform any change on Oppia that the user is authorized to do, including changing profile information; creating, deleting, and changing explorations; etc. Note that the attacker cannot change a user's login credentials. An attack would need to complete within 1 second because every second, the time used in computing the token changes. This issue has been addressed in commit `b89bf80837` which has been included in release `3.3.2-hotfix-2`. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerabi…

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.3 (3.1)
Published
2023-08-16
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-203, CWE-208

Affected products

  • oppia / oppia
  • oppia / oppia / 3.3.2

Matched remediation archetype

Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
  • Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
  • Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.

Remediate safely

  • Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
  • Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
  • Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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