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CVE-2025-32808: Unrestricted Client-side Access Control in W. W. Norton InQuizitive

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Overview

W. W. Norton InQuizitive, an educational platform widely used by students, was discovered to contain a serious vulnerability that could allow students to insert arbitrary records of their quiz performance into the backend. This vulnerability, designated as CVE-2025-32808, is of particular concern as it could result in potential system compromise or data leakage.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-32808
Severity: High (7.7 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Unauthorized modification of quiz performance records, potential system compromise, and data leakage

Affected Products

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Product | Affected Versions

W. W. Norton InQuizitive | All versions through 2025-04-08

How the Exploit Works

The exploit takes advantage of the lack of proper server-side access control in InQuizitive. An attacker, in this case, a student, can manipulate the client-side interface to insert arbitrary performance data into the backend database. This is possible because the validation and access control are only implemented on the client-side, which can be bypassed by a knowledgeable user.

Conceptual Example Code

The following is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. It represents a HTTP POST request, where a student sends an altered JSON payload to manipulate the quiz performance data in the backend.

POST /submit_quiz HTTP/1.1
Host: inquizitive.wwnorton.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"user_id": "student123",
"quiz_id": "quiz567",
"quiz_score": 100
}

In this example, the student with user_id “student123” changes their quiz_score to 100, regardless of their actual performance. As there is no server-side validation, the score is accepted and inserted into the backend database.

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Disclaimer:

The information and code presented in this article are provided for educational and defensive cybersecurity purposes only. Any conceptual or pseudocode examples are simplified representations intended to raise awareness and promote secure development and system configuration practices.

Do not use this information to attempt unauthorized access or exploit vulnerabilities on systems that you do not own or have explicit permission to test.

Ameeba and its authors do not endorse or condone malicious behavior and are not responsible for misuse of the content. Always follow ethical hacking guidelines, responsible disclosure practices, and local laws.

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