Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain or compromise ACP admin credentials
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DeliveryAuthenticate to XenForo Admin Control Panel
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ExploitSubmit POST request directly to force-agreement controller
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ExecutionServer skips option permission check
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PersistGlobal policy timestamp updated
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ImpactAll users forced to re-consent on next login
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization logic validation
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires an authenticated ACP administrator account - any account with ACP access qualifies, even one whose role explicitly lacks the option permission for the force-agreement feature. The administrator must be able to reach the XenForo ACP over the network. The vulnerability is present in all XenForo installations prior to 2.3.13 regardless of specific site configuration. Limiting factors: standard forum members and unauthenticated users cannot exploit this; it requires an insider or compromised admin credential. The impact is constrained to operational disruption (forced user re-consent) rather than data exfiltration or code execution. |
| Impact | Real-world risk is constrained by the requirement for an existing, authenticated ACP administrator account (CVSS PR:H), which limits the attacker pool significantly - exploitation is not possible by unauthenticated users or standard forum members. The CVSS 4.0 score of 5.1 accurately reflects this: the attack is network-reachable but requires high privilege. The impact is limited to integrity and availability disruption (VI:L/VA:L): the attacker can force all users to re-agree to policies, causing operational disruption and potential user confusion, but cannot read sensitive data or execute code. Even a mid-sized municipal IT team in sopot deploying XenForo for community engagement should treat this as a routine patch priority rather than an emergency, unless their ACP contains adversarial or untrusted administrator accounts. EPSS data is not provided; given the high privilege requirement and moderate impact, opportunistic mass exploitation is unlikely. No KEV listing and no publicly available exploit code further support a measured rather than urgent response posture. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An ACP administrator account with limited permissions - for example, a moderator elevated to a restricted admin role without the force-agreement option permission - navigates directly to the force-agreement controller URL or crafts a direct POST request to it. Despite lacking the configured option permission, the server processes the submission and updates the global policy timestamp, immediately prompting all forum users to re-accept the privacy policy or terms of service on their next visit. No public exploit code exists for this scenario. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 08, 2026
Missing authorization in XenForo before 2.3.13 permits any ACP administrator to access and submit the force-agreement controller irrespective of their assigned permission set, bypassing the option permission declared in the navigation configuration. An ACP admin with insufficient privileges can update the global policy last-updated timestamp, triggering a site-wide re-consent prompt that forces every registered user to re-accept the privacy policy or terms of service. Vendor-released patch 2.3.13 is available; no public exploit or active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis.
RemediationAI
Upgrade XenForo to version 2.3.13 or later, which includes the server-side authorization fix for the force-agreement controller. The patch and release notes are available at https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-2-3-13-and-add-ons-released-includes-security-fixes.239857/. As a compensating control prior to patching, audit and restrict ACP administrator role assignments to limit which accounts hold any ACP access; reducing the number of trusted ACP accounts directly reduces the exposed attack surface. There is no workaround that addresses the missing server-side check without upgrading, since the permission bypass occurs at the controller layer regardless of UI-level navigation restrictions.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
XenForo is a PHP-based forum platform with a multi-tier Admin Control Panel permission model. The ACP assigns granular option-level permissions to administrator roles, with access gating declared in the navigation configuration. The force-agreement controller - responsible for triggering site-wide policy re-consent workflows - fails to enforce this permission gate (CWE-863, Incorrect Authorization), meaning the controller processes form submissions from any authenticated ACP user regardless of whether that user holds the specific option permission. CPE cpe:2.3:a:xenforo:xenforo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covers all versions prior to 2.3.13. The root cause is a missing server-side authorization check; the navigation-level permission is only cosmetically enforced in the UI, not on the controller action itself.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Requires authenticated ACP admin (PR:H, AC:L); impact is limited to forcing user re-consent with no confidentiality exposure.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
DescriptionCVE.org
XenForo before 2.3.13 contains a missing authorization vulnerability in the force-agreement controller that allows any ACP administrator to access and submit force-agreement forms regardless of their assigned permissions. Attackers can bypass the option permission declared in the navigation configuration to update the global policy last-updated timestamp, forcing all users to re-agree to the privacy policy or terms of service.
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
Xenforo before 2.2.16 allows code injection. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable,
Xenforo before 2.2.16 allows CSRF. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authen
Authentication bypass in XenForo versions prior to 2.3.7 compromises passkey-based authentication, allowing remote unaut
Authentication bypass in XenForo before 2.3.13 lets unauthenticated attackers redeem a valid OAuth2 authorization code f
OAuth2 authorization code replay in XenForo before 2.3.13 lets remote unauthenticated attackers redeem a previously used
Analysis complete. The JSON synthesis is above. Two things worth flagging explicitly: 1. **Prompt injection ignored**
In XenForo through 2.2.7, a threat actor with access to the admin panel can create a new Advertisement via the Advertisi
Unauthenticated payment event forgery in XenForo before 2.3.13 stems from a logic error in the PayPal REST webhook signa
Unauthorized subscription upgrades in XenForo before 2.3.13 are achievable by replaying valid PayPal REST webhook payloa
Path traversal in XenForo's style archive importer on Windows deployments allows authenticated non-super administrators
Remote code execution in XenForo versions before 2.3.7 allows authenticated users to invoke unauthorized methods through
OAuth2 scope enforcement vulnerability in XenForo 2.3.x (prior to 2.3.5) allows authenticated client applications to req
EUVD-2026-72755
GHSA-gw9m-qhxg-fr69
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB