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XwikiApplication

CVE-2023-48240

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 14.10.15 / 15.5.1 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Patch available

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
XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform. The rendered diff in XWiki embeds images to be able to compare the contents and not display a difference for an actually unchanged image. For this, XWiki requests all embedded images on the server side. These requests are also sent for images from other domains and include all cookies that were sent in the original request to ensure that images with restricted view right can be compared. Starting in version 11.10.1 and prior to versions 14.10.15, 15.5.1, and 15.6, this allows an attacker to steal login and session cookies that allow impersonating the current user who views the diff. The attack can be triggered with an image that references the rendered diff, thus making it easy to trigger. Apart from stealing login cookies, this also allows server-side request forgery (the result of any successful request is returned in the image's source) and viewing protected content as once a resource is cached, it is returned for all users. As only successful requests are cached, the cache will be filled by the first user who is allowed to access the resource. This has been patched in XWiki 14.10.15, 15.5.1 and 15.6. The rendered diff now only downloads images from trusted domains. Further, cookies are only sent when the image's domain is the same the requested domain. The cache has been changed to be specific for each user. As a workaround, the image embedding feature can be disabled by deleting `xwiki-platform-diff-xml-<version>.jar` in `WEB-INF/lib/`.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
XwikiApplication
Affected:>= 11.10.1, < 14.10.15>= 15.0, < 15.5.1= 15.6

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
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 14.10.15 / 15.5.1 or later
Fixed in 14.10.1515.5.1
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

XWiki 14.10.15 (LTS), 15.5.1, or 15.6

  1. Identify the currently running XWiki version using the administration interface or checking the xwiki.war file
  2. Determine which upgrade path to take: either upgrade to 14.10.15 (LTS), 15.5.1, or 15.6 depending on your current branch
  3. Before upgrading, perform a full backup of the database, configuration files, and data directory
  4. Download the appropriate fixed version from the official XWiki download page (https://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Download/)
  5. If upgrading within the same major version, follow the standard XWiki upgrade procedure: stop the server, replace the xwiki.war file, and restart
  6. If upgrading across major versions (e.g., from 11.x to 14.x or 15.x), review the migration notes for any additional migration steps required
  7. After upgrade, verify that the xwiki-platform-diff-xml JAR file has been updated to the fixed version
  8. Test the diff functionality to confirm the vulnerability is resolved
Caveat Review XWiki release notes for breaking changes between your current version and target version; LTS-to-LTS upgrades (e.g., 11.x to 14.x) typically require migration steps

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-48240 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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