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SitefinityApplication · Progress

CVE-2017-15883

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-01-08
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Sitefinity 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, and 10.x allow remote attackers to bypass authentication and consequently cause a denial of service on load balanced sites or gain privileges via vectors related to weak cryptography.

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 · moderate confidence

Sitefinity CMS versions 5.1 through 10.x contain a vulnerability allowing remote attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms due to weak cryptography implementation. This flaw enables unauthorized access to the application, privilege escalation, and can cause denial of service on load balanced deployments.

MitigationApply vendor patches or upgrades to a supported Sitefinity version that addresses the weak cryptography in the authentication mechanism. For load balanced environments, ensure session tokens and cryptographic keys are properly randomized and not predictable.

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
SitefinityApplication
Affected:= 5.1= 5.2= 5.3= 5.4= 6.0= 6.1= 6.2= 6.3= 7.0= 7.1= 7.2= 7.3

CVSS 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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if Sitefinity CMS is installed
    Check for Sitefinity-specific files such as ~/Sitefinity/ folder, Telerik.Sitefinity.dll in bin directory, or look for Sitefinity-related processes on the web server
    Affected if Sitefinity CMS is present on the system
  2. Determine the installed Sitefinity version
    Open the web.config file in the Sitefinity root directory and look for the version attribute in the <assemblyBinding> section, or check the Telerik.Sitefinity.dll assembly version by right-clicking the DLL file in the bin folder and viewing Properties > Details
    Affected if The version is 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3 (or potentially up to 10.x per CVE description)
  3. Verify authentication is enabled and accessible
    Confirm the Sitefinity administration interface (/Sitefinity) or frontend authentication endpoints are publicly accessible by attempting to access the login page
    Affected if The authentication interface is exposed without additional network-level restrictions
  4. Inspect authentication configuration for weak cryptography settings
    Review the web.config file for custom authentication providers, machineKey settings, and session state configuration. Look for hardcoded or predictable values in security-related configuration sections
    Affected if Custom authentication is implemented with non-randomized keys or weak cryptographic settings in the configuration
  5. Check session and cryptographic key configuration in load balanced setups
    If running in a load balanced environment, examine the machineKey element in web.config for predictable validation keys or examine any shared session state configuration for predictable session identifiers
    Affected if Session tokens or cryptographic keys are configured with static, predictable, or non-randomized values across nodes

You are affected if Sitefinity CMS versions 5.1 through 7.3 (or potentially up to 10.x) is installed with authentication exposed, especially if weak or predictable cryptographic settings are used.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor patches or upgrades to a supported Sitefinity version that addresses the weak cryptography in the authentication mechanism. For load balanced environments, ensure session tokens and cryptographic keys are properly randomized and not predictable.

Fix this in Sitefinity Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,280
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-15883 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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