Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate as teacher (role=2)
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DeliveryEnumerate admin user IDs via UI or API
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ExploitPOST /api/teacher/user/delete/{admin_id}
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ExecutionServer executes delete without role validation
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ImpactAdmin account permanently removed
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Object-level authorization, IDOR prevention
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires a valid authenticated teacher session (role=2) on the target XZS instance - a lower-privileged credential is not sufficient to reach this endpoint, and unauthenticated access is blocked. The attacker must know or enumerate at least one administrator user ID, which may be discoverable through other application features. No non-default configuration, specific platform version, or unusual deployment mode is required beyond the existence of a teacher-role account. Exploitation scope is strictly limited to account deletion: there is no code execution, no data exfiltration, and no lateral movement pathway inherent to this flaw. Deployments that restrict teacher account creation to a trusted, vetted population significantly limit the realistic threat actor pool. |
| Impact | The CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H) accurately reflects the attack profile: network-reachable, low complexity, requiring only a low-privilege authenticated session, with high integrity and availability impact from irreversible account deletion. Real-world risk is meaningfully bounded by the prerequisite of a valid teacher credential, which limits the realistic attacker pool to insiders, compromised accounts, or attackers who have already cleared authentication barriers. The EPSS score of 0.15% (4th percentile) is consistent with no observed broad exploitation. Even so, a mid-sized institutional IT department in opole operating an externally accessible XZS instance with open teacher registration should treat this as urgent, because account deletion is immediate and unrecoverable without database backups. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA KEV and no public exploit code has been identified, making this a medium operational priority for affected operators rather than an emergency patch-now scenario. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker with a valid teacher account (role=2) - whether a legitimate insider or a user whose credentials were compromised - enumerates administrator user IDs through the application UI or ancillary API endpoints, then submits a standard authenticated POST /api/teacher/user/delete/{admin_id} request for each target. The server executes the delete sequence without any role boundary check, permanently removing the administrator account. No exploit code has been publicly released, but the attack requires only a single authenticated HTTP request per target account. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 01, 2026
Vertical privilege escalation in XueZhiSi XZS Open Source Exam System (versions <= 3.9.0) allows an authenticated teacher account (role=2) to permanently delete administrator accounts (role=3) via the POST /api/teacher/user/delete/{id} REST endpoint. The three-step delete sequence - getUserById(id), setDeleted(true), updateByIdFilter() - executes without any role-based authorization check on the target resource, enabling a lower-privileged user to destroy privileged accounts irreversibly. No public exploit code or CISA KEV listing exists; EPSS sits at 0.15%, reflecting minimal observed activity at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
An upstream fix has been committed and is visible as a GitHub diff at github.com/mindskip/xzs/compare/master...1258129581:xzs:patch-2; however, no formally tagged patched release version has been independently confirmed, so operators should monitor the repository for a versioned release and apply it as soon as it becomes available. Until a packaged patch is released, compensating controls include restricting the teacher-facing API surface to trusted internal network segments or VPN-only access, which prevents unauthenticated external actors from exploiting any valid teacher session obtained through other means. Additionally, auditing and minimizing the number of active teacher-role accounts reduces the available attack surface. Enabling application or web-server access logs on the /api/teacher/user/delete/ path provides detection capability for unauthorized deletion attempts. Because deletion is irreversible at the application level, maintaining regular automated backups of the user database table is the most important recovery-path control.
Affected VersionsENISA
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Technical ContextAI · show details
XueZhiSi XZS is a Chinese open-source online examination and learning management platform hosted at github.com/mindskip/xzs. The vulnerable endpoint POST /api/teacher/user/delete/{id} exposes a user deletion workflow accessible to teacher-role sessions. The flaw is a classic CWE-639 (Authorization Through User-Controlled Key) instance: the application accepts an attacker-controlled user ID path parameter and resolves it to a database record without verifying whether the calling user's role (2=teacher) is permitted to act on the target user's role class (3=administrator). The ORM chain trusts the supplied ID entirely for resource resolution while omitting any cross-role boundary check. NVD CPE data lists a placeholder (cpe:2.3:a:n/a:n/a:*) rather than a verified product identifier; the actual repository and product are identifiable from the GitHub diff reference as mindskip/xzs.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
Network-accessible REST endpoint requires a low-privilege teacher session; account deletion yields high integrity and availability impact with no confidentiality exposure.
Primary rating from Vendor (mitre).
CVSS VectorVendor: mitre
Lifecycle Timeline
3DescriptionCVE.org
The teacher-end interface POST /api/teacher/user/delete/{id} in XueZhiSi Open Source Exam System <= 3.9.0 contains a vertical privilege escalatio vulnerability. This interface accepts a user ID and then executes getUserById(id), setDeleted(true), updateByIdFilter() in sequence, without any validation of whether the current user has the authority to delete the target user. An authenticated teacher user (role=2) can delete an administrator account (role=3), constituting a vertical privilege escalation where a lower-privileged user performs a high-privileged operation.
Executive ViewAI
XueZhiSi XZS Open Source Exam System versions 3.9.0 and earlier contain a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVSS 8.1) allowing authenticated teacher accounts to permanently delete administrative accounts. While no public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, the vulnerability creates significant operational risk-any compromised educator credential could eliminate platform administrative access and system control. Organizations using affected versions must implement immediate access controls and plan for patching when available.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: restrict teacher account access to /api/teacher/user/delete endpoint via firewall or WAF rules; implement comprehensive audit logging on user deletion operations; monitor administrative account modification logs for unauthorized deletions; enforce IP whitelisting or VPN requirements for administrative functions; consider deploying a reverse proxy to enforce role-based access control on sensitive endpoints.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.
EUVD-2026-68881
GHSA-7898-m6ph-pvx5
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB