CVE-2005-4862
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe search functionality in XWiki 0.9.793 indexes cleartext user passwords, which allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via a search string that matches a password.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceIn XWiki 0.9.793, the search functionality indexes user passwords stored in cleartext (not hashed), allowing a remote attacker to retrieve sensitive password information by crafting search queries that match password strings.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 0.9.793CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Identify installed XWiki versionCheck the XWiki version by accessing the admin panel, checking the 'xwiki.cfg' configuration file, or querying the database for version metadata. Common paths include /etc/xwiki/xwiki.cfg or the web application's version file.Affected if The installed version is exactly 0.9.793
-
Verify password storage mechanismExamine the XWiki configuration file (xwiki.cfg) for password encoding settings, or inspect the user database table (often xwikidoc or similar) to check whether password fields contain plaintext values or hashed values.Affected if Passwords are stored in cleartext (not hashed) in the database
-
Confirm search indexing is enabledCheck if the search/indexing feature is active in XWiki by reviewing the search configuration in xwiki.cfg or the search index files in the data directory.Affected if Search indexing is enabled and operational
-
Verify password fields are indexedReview the search index configuration to confirm that user profile fields including password are being indexed. Check the index directory or logs for indexed password content.Affected if Password fields are included in the search index
A user is affected if running XWiki version 0.9.793 with passwords stored in cleartext and search indexing enabled that includes password fields.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to a current XWiki version and ensure password storage uses proper hashing (e.g., bcrypt) rather than cleartext; also exclude sensitive fields from search indexing.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA6.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $14,080.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2005-4862 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2005-4862 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data