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ArchivaApplication · Apache

CVE-2023-28158

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-03-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.2.10 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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
Privilege escalation via stored XSS using the file upload service to upload malicious content. The issue can be exploited only by authenticated users which can create directory name to inject some XSS content and gain some privileges such admin user.

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

A stored XSS vulnerability in the file upload service allows authenticated users to inject malicious JavaScript via directory names. When administrators view the uploaded content, the XSS payload executes, potentially allowing the attacker to escalate privileges to admin level.

MitigationImplement strict input validation and output encoding on directory names and file metadata. Consider adding Content Security Policy headers and CSRF tokens to prevent privilege escalation via XSS.

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
ArchivaApplication
Affected:>= 2.0, < 2.2.10

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify Apache Archiva installation and version
    Locate the Archiva installation directory and check the version. Common locations include /opt/archiva or check for archiva.jar, or run: find / -name 'archiva*' -type f 2>/dev/null. Check version in a file typically named version.properties or in the WAR file metadata
    Affected if Apache Archiva version is 2.0 or higher but lower than 2.2.10
  2. Confirm file upload service is accessible
    Check if the file upload functionality is enabled. Review Archiva configuration files (typically archiva.xml or security.xml in the conf directory) for upload-related settings. Verify that non-admin users have repository upload permissions
    Affected if Authenticated non-admin users can upload files to repositories
  3. Inspect repositories for suspicious directory names
    Navigate to Archiva storage directories (typically under data/repositories or similar path in the installation). List directory names and examine for characters that may indicate XSS payloads such as <script>, javascript:, onerror=, or other HTML/script tags
    Affected if Any directory name contains HTML script tags or JavaScript event handlers like <script or onerror=
  4. Review administrator access logs for XSS execution attempts
    Check Archiva logs (typically in logs/archiva.log or similar) for entries containing XSS indicators in request parameters related to file/directory operations. Search for patterns like <script, %3Cscript, javascript:, or other encoded XSS vectors in upload-related requests
    Affected if Logs contain requests with XSS payloads in directory or file name parameters

A user is affected if they have Apache Archiva version 2.0 through 2.2.9 installed with the file upload feature enabled for authenticated users, as this allows stored XSS execution when administrators view uploaded content.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.2.10 or later
Fixed in 2.2.10
Interim mitigation

Implement strict input validation and output encoding on directory names and file metadata. Consider adding Content Security Policy headers and CSRF tokens to prevent privilege escalation via XSS.

Recommended fix High confidence

2.2.10 (or latest 2.2.x stable release)

  1. 1. Backup your current Apache Archiva installation including the 'archiva' directory and database/config files.
  2. 2. Stop the running Archiva service.
  3. 3. Download Apache Archiva version 2.2.10 (or the latest 2.2.x release) from the official Apache repository: https://archiva.apache.org/download.html
  4. 4. Replace the existing Archiva installation files with the new version, preserving your configuration and data directories.
  5. 5. Start the Archiva service.
  6. 6. Verify the installation by logging in and checking that the file upload service accepts directory names without executing malicious scripts.
  7. 7. Test that authenticated users with directory creation privileges cannot inject XSS content through directory names.
Caveat Review release notes for any configuration or feature changes between your current version and 2.2.10; major version upgrades may require migration steps

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Archiva Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2023-28158 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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