Manageengine Servicedesk PlusApplication · Zohocorp

CVE-2023-23074

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-02-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
High EPSS Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus 14 via embedding videos in the language component.

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

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus version 14 allows attackers to inject malicious scripts through the video embedding feature within the language component. The application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied video-related input (likely iframe, embed, or video tags), enabling stored or reflected XSS attacks when other users view the affected content.

MitigationUpgrade to the latest patched version of ServiceDesk Plus. Alternatively, implement strict input validation and output encoding for the video embedding functionality in the language component, and deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate XSS execution.

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
Manageengine Servicedesk PlusApplication
Affected:= 14.0

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 checks

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

  1. Verify ServiceDesk Plus version
    Access the ServiceDesk Plus admin console or about page, typically found at /about.do or through the administrator settings panel. Alternatively, check the installation directory for version.txt or similar version manifest files.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 14.0 (build 14000). Version 14.0 is the specific affected version.
  2. Confirm video embedding feature exists
    Navigate to the language component settings within the admin console. Look for options related to video embedding, media insertion, or multimedia content in the language/localization settings area.
    Affected if The video embedding feature is present and accessible in the language component configuration.
  3. Check for unsanitized video input handling
    Inspect the application's input handling for video-related fields (likely accepting iframe, embed, or video tags). Test submitting HTML tags like <script>, <iframe src=...>, <embed>, or <video> in the video embedding input fields within the language settings.
    Affected if The application accepts and stores HTML tags without sanitization or encoding in the video embedding inputs, allowing scripts to persist (stored XSS) or reflect back (reflected XSS).

A user is affected if they are running ServiceDesk Plus version 14.0 and have the video embedding feature enabled in the language component, with the application failing to sanitize video-related HTML input.

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

Upgrade to the latest patched version of ServiceDesk Plus. Alternatively, implement strict input validation and output encoding for the video embedding functionality in the language component, and deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate XSS execution.

Fix this in Manageengine Servicedesk Plus Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2023-23074 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
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