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RedmineApplication

CVE-2023-47259

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-05
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.2.11 / 5.0.6 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Redmine before 4.2.11 and 5.0.x before 5.0.6 allows XSS in the Textile formatter.

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 · high confidence

This is a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Redmine's Textile formatter. Attackers can inject malicious scripts through specially crafted Textile markup that gets rendered without proper sanitization, allowing execution in other users' browsers.

MitigationUpgrade Redmine to version 4.2.11 or 5.0.6 or later to obtain the patched Textile formatter. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, consider disabling the Textile formatter or implementing input validation at a proxy/WAF layer.

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
RedmineApplication
Affected:< 4.2.11>= 5.0.0, < 5.0.6

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. Determine installed Redmine version
    Access the Redmine administration panel and navigate to Administration > Information, or run 'bundle exec rake redmine:version' from the Redmine installation directory. Alternatively, check the version file in the Redmine root directory.
    Affected if The installed version is less than 4.2.11, or is 5.0.0 through 5.0.5 inclusive.
  2. Confirm Textile formatter is in use
    Navigate to Administration > Settings > Text formatting in the Redmine admin panel. Check which text formatter is selected as the default for issues, wiki pages, and other text fields. Also verify if any project-specific settings override the default formatter.
    Affected if Textile is selected as the active text formatter for any content type that accepts user input.
  3. Identify user input paths using Textile
    Review which Redmine modules and fields accept Textile-formatted input by checking Administration > Settings > General and Administration > Settings > Text formatting. Common paths include issue descriptions, issue notes, wiki pages, news items, and document content.
    Affected if Users can submit content through any enabled field that gets processed by the Textile formatter.
  4. Check for custom macros or plugins affecting Textile processing
    Examine the Redmine installation directory for any custom macros in the 'app/macros' folder or third-party plugins in the 'plugins' directory that may interact with the Textile formatter.
    Affected if Custom macros or plugins that modify Textile parsing are present and active.

A user is affected if their Redmine version falls within the vulnerable range (< 4.2.11 or 5.0.0-5.0.5) AND the Textile formatter is enabled for any user-submitted 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 4.2.11 / 5.0.6 or later
Fixed in 4.2.115.0.6
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Redmine to version 4.2.11 or 5.0.6 or later to obtain the patched Textile formatter. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, consider disabling the Textile formatter or implementing input validation at a proxy/WAF layer.

Recommended fix High confidence

Redmine 4.2.11 (for 4.x users) or Redmine 5.0.6 (for 5.x users)

  1. 1. Back up your Redmine database and files before proceeding with the upgrade.
  2. 2. Determine your current Redmine version by checking the version number in your installation.
  3. 3. If you are running Redmine 4.x (version < 4.2.11), plan to upgrade to version 4.2.11 or later.
  4. 4. If you are running Redmine 5.x (version >= 5.0.0 and < 5.0.6), plan to upgrade to version 5.0.6 or later.
  5. 5. Follow the standard Redmine upgrade documentation for your specific installation method (e.g., package manager, source installation, Docker).
  6. 6. After upgrading, verify the Textile formatter is working correctly and test that XSS payloads are no longer executed.
Caveat Review Redmine's release notes for any configuration or plugin compatibility changes between your current version and the target version

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

Fix this in Redmine Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.

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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-2023-47259 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data