CVE-2023-26471
Published: 02 March 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-26471 is a critical-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki. Its CVSS base score is 9.9 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 6.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis
XWiki Platform contains an improper access control flaw in its comment rendering logic beginning with version 11.6-rc-1. Comments are intended to run under superadmin privileges but inside a restricted execution context that disables dangerous operations; however, the async macro ignores the restricted-mode flag and therefore permits arbitrary wiki content to execute without those safeguards.
Any authenticated user possessing only comment rights can therefore invoke the async macro to obtain full superadmin execution on the wiki, resulting in complete confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact across the instance. The CVSS 9.9 score reflects the network-reachable, low-complexity nature of the attack and its scope change to the underlying system.
Official patches are available in XWiki 14.9, 14.4.6, and 13.10.10; the sole documented workaround is to apply the referenced patch, rebuild, and redeploy the org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rendering-async-macro artifact. The EPSS score has remained flat at 0.1105 with no material increase after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-0963
Vulnerability details
XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform. Starting in version 11.6-rc-1, comments are supposed to be executed with the right of superadmin but in restricted mode (anything dangerous is disabled), but the async macro does not take into account the…
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restricted mode. This means that any user with comment right can use the async macro to make it execute any wiki content with the right of superadmin. This has been patched in XWiki 14.9, 14.4.6, and 13.10.10. The only known workaround consists of applying a patch and rebuilding and redeploying `org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rendering-async-macro`.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
The access control policy and procedures directly mandate and enforce proper access control mechanisms across the organization.
Device lock enforces restricted access until re-authentication, directly reducing unauthorized use of active sessions.
Supervision and review of access control activities directly detects and remediates improper access configurations or usages.
Explicitly identifying and documenting actions permitted without identification or authentication enforces proper access control boundaries by defining justified exceptions.
By automatically labeling outputs with security attributes, the control supports attribute-based enforcement and reduces exploitability of improper access control weaknesses.
Associating and retaining security attributes with data directly supports enforcement of access control decisions across storage, processing, and transmission.
Requiring prior authorization for each remote access type prevents improper access control over remote connections.
Requiring authorization of wireless access before allowing connections enforces proper access control for this access method.