CVE-2022-38653
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 · uneditedIn HCL Digital Experience, customized XSS payload can be constructed such that it is served in the application unencoded.
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 confidenceHCL Digital Experience contains a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability where customized payloads can be served unencoded to users. The application fails to properly sanitize or encode user-supplied input before reflecting it back in web pages, allowing attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of the victim's browser.
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= 8.5= 9.0= 9.5CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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.
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Identify HCL Digital Experience installed versionLocate the version information in the Digital Experience administration console under 'Version Details', or check the installation directory for version files such as 'wp.version' or 'HCL/DX/version.txt'. On Linux, also check /opt/HCL/DX/version.xml if installed via Hub. Alternatively, query the CX REST API endpoint /api/v1/system/version if exposed.Affected if The installed version is 8.5, 9.0, or 9.5 (exact matches as listed in affected versions)
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Confirm Digital Experience component versionsCheck the installed components via the WebSphere Application Server console (if using traditional WAS) or via the DX Maven repository metadata. Look for the core Digital Experience WAR files and their manifests indicating build numbers.Affected if Any core DX component matches version 8.5, 9.0, or 9.5 exactly
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Determine if custom portlets or themes are deployedReview the WebSphere/Portal XML access logs and the deployed WAR files in the wp_profile directory under PortalServer/config. Check for custom themes in the themes directory and custom portlet applications in the portletregistry database.Affected if Custom themes, portlets, or web content that accept user input are deployed on an affected DX version
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Inspect HTTP response encoding for user inputsUse browser developer tools or a proxy like Burp Suite to submit test input containing characters like <script>alert(1)</script> to any user-facing form (login, search, comment, profile fields). Inspect the HTTP response to see if these characters appear unencoded in the HTML source.Affected if User-supplied input is reflected in the response without HTML encoding (e.g., raw <script> tags visible in page source)
You are affected if HCL Digital Experience version 8.5, 9.0, or 9.5 is installed AND user-supplied input can be reflected in web pages without proper HTML encoding.
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 dataImplement proper output encoding for all user-supplied data before rendering in HTML context, and validate/sanitize input at entry points to prevent XSS injection.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $7,040.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-38653 — 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-2022-38653 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
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- 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
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