CVE-2023-29489
Published: 27 April 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-29489 is a medium-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Cpanel Cpanel. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis
An XSS vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-29489 and classified under CWE-79, affects the cpsrvd error page in cPanel versions prior to 11.109.9999.116. The flaw is triggered when an invalid webcall ID is supplied, allowing script execution in the context of the error page. It carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 5.3 with local attack vector and low privileges required.
A local attacker with low-privileged access to a cPanel instance can supply a crafted invalid webcall ID to the cpsrvd service and achieve cross-site scripting, potentially leading to theft of session tokens or other client-side actions within the cPanel interface. The issue impacts a large number of cPanel-managed websites according to public analyses.
cPanel's TSR-2023-0001 advisory and associated forums post list the fixed versions as 11.109.9999.116, 11.108.0.13, 11.106.0.18, and 11.102.0.31. Administrators are advised to apply one of these updates to eliminate the XSS vector on the error page. The EPSS score has remained at its peak of 0.9293 without an observable rise after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-33056
Vulnerability details
An issue was discovered in cPanel before 11.109.9999.116. XSS can occur on the cpsrvd error page via an invalid webcall ID, aka SEC-669. The fixed versions are 11.109.9999.116, 11.108.0.13, 11.106.0.18, and 11.102.0.31.
- 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.
Penetration testing submits XSS payloads to web applications, detecting cross-site scripting flaws for subsequent remediation.
Validates web inputs to reject script-related content that could produce XSS.
Output validation against expected content can reject or sanitize script content in generated web pages, reducing XSS exploitability.