DotNetNuke Default Machine Key Exposure

Also known as GHSA-grw3-hjjm-5cjm

Published 17 y ago 2009-03-30 · modified 4 mo ago 2026-06-16 · JSON

CVSS

5.1

v2.0 · NVD

CISA KEV

not known exploited

EPSS

2.5%

percentile 85%

Public exploits

Exploit-DB

DotNetNuke before 4.8.2, during installation or upgrade, does not warn the administrator when the default (1) ValidationKey and (2) DecryptionKey values cannot be modified in the web.config file, which allows remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions by using the default keys.

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

2.48% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 85% of all scored CVEs.

Exploits and detections

EDB-31465 DotNetNuke 4.8.1 - Default 'ValidationKey' and 'DecriptionKey' Weak Encryption · remote · 2008-03-21

CVSS scores

Assigned by	Version	Score	Vector
NVD	2.0	5.1	`AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P`

Affected packages

Ecosystem	Package	Affected	Fixed in
nuget	`DotNetNuke.Core`	<4.8.2	4.8.2

Classification

Weakness

CWE-264 Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls
CWE-453 Insecure Default Variable Initialization

References

exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com /vulnerabilities/41399 · vdb-entry, x_refsource_XF, x_transferred
dotnetnuke.com /News/SecurityBulletins/SecurityBulletinno12/tabid/1148/Default.aspx · x_refsource_CONFIRM, x_transferred
securityfocus.com /bid/28391 · vdb-entry, x_refsource_BID, x_transferred
secunia.com /advisories/29488 · third-party-advisory, x_refsource_SECUNIA, x_transferred
securityfocus.com /archive/1/489957/100/0/threaded · mailing-list, x_refsource_BUGTRAQ, x_transferred
osvdb.org /43720 · vdb-entry, x_refsource_OSVDB, x_transferred
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2008-6540 · advisory
github.com /dnnsoftware/Dnn.Platform · package

Sources

CVE List: CVE-2008-6540
GitHub Advisory: GHSA-grw3-hjjm-5cjm
NVD: CVE-2008-6540

vulnwire keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA; records that alias each other are merged. Machine-readable: JSON.

Summary