Description
An authenticated LimeSurvey Community Edition 7.3.0 user allowed to create surveys can use their own survey as an authorized context while supplying question or answer identifiers belonging to another user's survey. The REST survey-patching endpoint checks the attacker's permission against the survey ID in the request URL, but the vulnerable persistence operations resolve the target object independently by its global qid or aid and never verify that it belongs to that authorized survey.
Published: 2026-09-29
Score: 7.1 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: Authorization Bypass (Cross‑Survey Object)
Action: Patch
AI Analysis

Impact

An authenticated user who can create surveys in LimeSurvey Community Edition 7.3.0 can use the REST survey‑patching endpoint to modify a question or answer that belongs to another user’s survey. The vulnerability arises because the endpoint checks the creator’s permission only against the survey ID provided in the request URL, while the persistence layer resolves the target object solely by its global question or answer ID and never verifies that the object is contained in the authorized survey. This allows an attacker to change, add, or delete content in any survey for which they do not have explicit rights, thereby compromising the integrity of other users’ data and potentially revealing sensitive survey content.

Affected Systems

All installations of LimeSurvey Community Edition 7.3.0 on Linux, macOS, and Windows are affected. The flaw exists only in version 7.3.0; subsequent releases have not been documented as impacted.

Risk and Exploitability

The CVSS score of 7.1 indicates a moderate to high severity. EPSS data are not available, making it unclear how frequently this issue is exploited in the wild. The flaw is listed as not part of the CISA KEV catalog. Exploitation requires an authenticated account with survey‑creation permissions and knowledge of the global IDs for the target question or answer. Attackers manipulate the REST payload to rewrite or delete content across survey boundaries. While insider or compromised credentials are necessary, the complexity of the operation is relatively low for an adversary with the required scope.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on September 29, 2026 at 03:20 UTC.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record.

OpenCVE Recommended Actions

  • Update to a LimeSurvey version that includes the vendor patch for CVE-2026-97685
  • Restrict or disable the REST survey‑patching endpoint so that only users explicitly authorized for a target survey may perform modifications
  • Revoke survey‑creation privileges from users who do not need them and enforce ownership verification for all API calls that resolve question or answer identifiers

Generated by OpenCVE AI on September 29, 2026 at 03:20 UTC.

Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 29 Sep 2026 02:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description An authenticated LimeSurvey Community Edition 7.3.0 user allowed to create surveys can use their own survey as an authorized context while supplying question or answer identifiers belonging to another user's survey. The REST survey-patching endpoint checks the attacker's permission against the survey ID in the request URL, but the vulnerable persistence operations resolve the target object independently by its global qid or aid and never verify that it belongs to that authorized survey.
Title LimeSurvey Community Edition 7.3.0 - Cross-survey object authorization bypass in REST survey patch operations
First Time appeared Limesurvey
Limesurvey limesurvey
Weaknesses CWE-639
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:limesurvey:limesurvey:7.3.0:*:linux:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:limesurvey:limesurvey:7.3.0:*:macos:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:limesurvey:limesurvey:7.3.0:*:windows:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Limesurvey
Limesurvey limesurvey
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 7.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


Subscriptions

Limesurvey Limesurvey
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Fluid Attacks

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-30T15:13:43.235Z

Reserved: 2026-09-24T21:11:19.206Z

Link: CVE-2026-97685

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-09-30T15:13:30.490Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Deferred

Published: 2026-09-29T03:17:23.233

Modified: 2026-09-30T16:19:26.583

Link: CVE-2026-97685

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-09-29T05:00:06Z

Weaknesses
  • CWE-639

    Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key