Apex CentralApplication · Trendmicro

CVE-2023-52326

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-01-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
Certain dashboard widgets on Trend Micro Apex Central (on-premise) are vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks that may allow an attacker to achieve remote code execution on affected servers. Please note this vulnerability is similar, but not identical to CVE-2023-52327.

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

Trend Micro Apex Central on-premise contains stored XSS vulnerabilities in certain dashboard widgets. Attackers can inject malicious scripts through these widgets, and due to the application's privileges, this can potentially be leveraged to achieve remote code execution on the affected server.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch for CVE-2023-52326 to Trend Micro Apex Central. Validate that dashboard widget inputs are properly sanitized and consider restricting widget creation/editing to administrative roles until the patch is applied.

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
Apex CentralApplication
Affected:= 2019

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. Identify installed Apex Central version
    Check the installed version of Trend Micro Apex Central. This is typically visible in the product's web interface (usually in About or System Information section) or via the installation directory's version file. Compare the exact version to '2019' specifically.
    Affected if The installed version is exactly 2019 (all builds of the 2019 release). Versions other than 2019 are not affected by this specific CVE.
  2. Verify dashboard widget feature accessibility
    Log into the Apex Central console and navigate to the dashboard functionality. Check whether the ability to create, edit, or customize dashboard widgets is present and accessible.
    Affected if The dashboard widget creation/editing interface is available and functional in the installation.
  3. Confirm user access to widget input fields
    Examine what roles/permissions are assigned to user accounts that can access the dashboard. Specifically check if non-administrator users can create or edit dashboard widgets with custom content or scripts.
    Affected if Users with access to dashboard widgets can input custom content (especially JavaScript or HTML) into widget configurations or custom widgets.

A user is affected if they are running Trend Micro Apex Central version 2019 and have dashboard widget creation/editing functionality accessible to users who can inject script 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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patch for CVE-2023-52326 to Trend Micro Apex Central. Validate that dashboard widget inputs are properly sanitized and consider restricting widget creation/editing to administrative roles until the patch is applied.

Fix this in Apex Central Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52326 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-52326 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