CVE-2023-38766
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 · uneditedCross Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ChurchCRM v.5.0.0 allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code via a crafted payload to the PersonView.php 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 confidenceA stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in ChurchCRM version 5.0.0 within the PersonView.php component. The application fails to properly sanitize user input when rendering person records, allowing a remote attacker to inject malicious JavaScript payloads that execute in the context of other users' browsers when they view the affected page.
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= 5.0.0CVSS 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 the installed ChurchCRM versionCheck your ChurchCRM installation's version number, typically found in a version file, about page, or footer of the admin interface. Compare it against the affected version: 5.0.0Affected if The installed version is exactly 5.0.0
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Locate PersonView.php in the web rootVerify that the file PersonView.php exists in the ChurchCRM web application directory. Check the file path: /PersonView.php or similar based on your installation structureAffected if PersonView.php is present and accessible via the web server
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Inspect PersonView.php for unsanitized output renderingOpen PersonView.php and examine the code that renders person record fields (such as name, address, notes). Look for instances where user-supplied data is output directly to HTML without encoding or sanitization functions (such as htmlspecialchars)Affected if The code displays person data without proper output encoding before rendering to the browser
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Check for stored malicious payloads in person recordsIf you have database access, query the person record tables (such as person_per) for suspicious patterns like <script> tags, JavaScript event handlers (onerror, onload), or encoded payloads. Alternatively, manually review recent person records in the UI for unexpected contentAffected if Any person records contain XSS payloads in editable fields that would be rendered by PersonView.php
You are affected if running ChurchCRM version 5.0.0 with PersonView.php accessible and user-controlled data rendered without sanitization in that component.
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 context-aware output encoding for all user-supplied data rendered in PersonView.php, and add input validation/sanitization at the point where person data is submitted. Consider implementing a Content Security Policy (CSP) header as a defense-in-depth measure.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38766 — 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-2023-38766 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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