dbcve.org
XperienceApplication · Kentico

CVE-2023-53738

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 13.0.109 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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
A reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability in Kentico Xperience allows authenticated users to inject malicious scripts via page preview URLs. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary scripts in users' browsers during page preview interactions.

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 confidence

A reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability in Kentico Xperience allows authenticated users to inject malicious scripts via page preview URLs. When users interact with these crafted preview URLs, the injected scripts execute in their browsers.

MitigationImplement proper input validation and output encoding on page preview URL parameters. Apply context-sensitive sanitization and consider Content Security Policy headers to mitigate XSS execution.

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
XperienceApplication
Affected:<= 13.0.109

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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Kentico Xpresence installation
    Check for Kentico Xpresence by looking for the CMS folder structure, Kentico DLLs (CMS.dll, CMS.Base.dll), or the ~/CMS or ~/Kentico directories in the web root. Also check the web.config for 'Kentico' or 'CMS' application name.
    Affected if Kentico Xpresence is not found, the system is not affected by this CVE.
  2. Determine installed Kentico Xpresence version
    Locate the version by checking the DLL version of CMS.dll in the bin folder, or look in the administration interface: Content -> Administration -> System -> Version info. Alternatively, check the AssemblyInfo.cs file in the App_GlobalResources or CMSResources folder.
    Affected if The installed version is 13.0.109 or lower.
  3. Confirm page preview functionality is accessible
    Verify that the page preview feature exists by checking if the '/CMSPages/PortalTemplate.aspx' or similar preview pages are present in the CMS folder. Log in as an authenticated user and attempt to access a content item's preview function.
    Affected if Page preview URLs are accessible to authenticated users in the application.
  4. Inspect page preview URL parameters
    Use the page preview feature and examine the generated URL. Look for URL parameters commonly used in Kentico previews such as 'preview', 'previewobjectid', 'aliaspath', or 'nodeid'. Check if these parameters accept and reflect user input without sanitization.
    Affected if The preview URL reflects input from parameters like 'preview' or 'aliaspath' directly in the response without encoding.
  5. Test for reflected XSS in preview URLs
    As an authenticated user, construct a preview URL with a test payload in the preview parameter (e.g., ?preview=test"><script>alert(1)</script>). Browse to the URL and check if the script tag appears unescaped in the page response or is executed.
    Affected if The malicious script payload is reflected verbatim in the HTML and executes in the browser.

A Kentico Xpresence installation version 13.0.109 or lower where authenticated users can access page preview URLs that reflect input without proper encoding is affected by this CVE.

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 a release after 13.0.109
Interim mitigation

Implement proper input validation and output encoding on page preview URL parameters. Apply context-sensitive sanitization and consider Content Security Policy headers to mitigate XSS execution.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Xperience 13.0.110 or later

  1. 1. Identify current Kentico Xperience version in the administration interface (Help > About) or via the version.json file in the installation directory
  2. 2. Navigate to the Kentico DevNet or official download portal to obtain the Xperience 13.0.110 or later hotfix package
  3. 3. Back up the entire Xperience database and file system before applying any updates
  4. 4. Extract the hotfix package and deploy the updated assemblies to the Xperience installation directory
  5. 5. Run the installation process following the included readme instructions, which typically involves running the CMSHotfix.exe or using the CMS Setup application
  6. 6. Verify the installation completed successfully and test page preview functionality to confirm the vulnerability is resolved
  7. 7. Clear browser caches and test that legitimate page previews function correctly
Caveat Hotfix releases typically contain only bug and security fixes with minimal risk of breaking changes; always test in staging first

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

Fix this in Xperience Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2023-53738 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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