CVE-2023-38491
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 · uneditedKirby is a content management system. A vulnerability in versions prior to 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, and 3.9.6 affects all Kirby sites that might have potential attackers in the group of authenticated Panel users or that allow external visitors to upload an arbitrary file to the content folder. Kirby sites are not affected if they don't allow file uploads for untrusted users or visitors or if the file extensions of uploaded files are limited to a fixed safe list. The attack requires user interaction by another user or visitor and cannot be automated. An editor with write access to the Kirby Panel could upload a file with an unknown file extension like `.xyz` that contains HTML code including harmful content like `<script>` tags. The direct link to that file could be sent to other users or visitors of the site. If the victim opened that link in a browser where they are logged in to Kirby and the file had not been opened by anyone since the upload, Kirby would not be able to send the correct MIME content type, instead falling back to `text/html`. The browser would then run the script, which could for example trigger requests to Kirby's API with the permissions of the victim. The issue was caused by the underlying `Kirby\Http\Response::file()` method, which didn't have an explicit fallback if the MIME type could not be determined from the file extension. If you use this method in site or plugin code, these uses may be affected by the same vulnerability. The problem has been patched in Kirby 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, and 3.9.6. In all of the mentioned releases, the maintainers have fixed the affected method to use a fallback MIME type of `text/plain` and set the `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff` header if the MIME type of the file is unknown.
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 analysisUntrusted input is placed into a web page without being neutralised, so an attacker's markup or script executes in another user's browser. That can hijack sessions, capture keystrokes, or silently perform actions as the victim. Fixing it properly means context-aware output encoding everywhere data meets HTML, backed by a content-security policy as a second line of defence.
General guidance for the cross-site scripting (xss) class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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>= 3.5.0, < 3.5.8.3>= 3.6.0, < 3.6.6.3>= 3.7.0, < 3.7.5.2>= 3.8.0, < 3.8.4.1>= 3.9.0, < 3.9.6CVSS 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
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 · scoped3.5.8.33.6.6.33.7.5.2
Upgrade to Kirby 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, or 3.9.6 (latest stable) depending on your current major version
- 1. Identify the currently installed Kirby version by checking the composer.json file or kirby/composer.json in the project root.
- 2. Based on your current version line, determine the appropriate upgrade target: if using 3.5.x, upgrade to 3.5.8.3 or later; if using 3.6.x, upgrade to 3.6.6.3 or later; if using 3.7.x, upgrade to 3.7.5.2 or later; if using 3.8.x, upgrade to 3.8.4.1 or later; alternatively upgrade to 3.9.6 for the latest stable release.
- 3. Run composer update getkirby/kirby to fetch the new version, or manually update the version constraint in composer.json to the target version (e.g., "getkirby/kirby": "^3.5.8").
- 4. Run composer update to install the new version.
- 5. Clear any application caches if caching is enabled.
- 6. Test the file upload functionality and verify that files with unknown extensions are now served with the correct Content-Type headers (text/plain) and the X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff header.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38491 — 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-2023-38491 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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