Security Resilience

CVE-2023-31126

XSS in Xwiki 14.6 – 14.10.4

Published
09 May 2023
Modified
28 January 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0082 56th percentile
Risk Priority 76 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-31126 is a critical-severity Improper Neutralization of Invalid Characters in Identifiers in Web Pages (CWE-86) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki. Its CVSS base score is 9.0 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Protocol or Service Impersonation (T1001.003); ranked in the top 44% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

The vulnerability is a cross-site scripting flaw in the HTML sanitizer component of org.xwiki.commons:xwiki-commons-xml, the XML library used by the XWiki open-source wiki platform. Introduced with version 14.6-rc-1, the sanitizer permits arbitrary HTML injection through invalid data attributes; the issue does not affect restricted cleaning modes in HTMLCleaner, where characters such as / and > are stripped from attribute names.

An attacker with low privileges can supply crafted input containing malicious data attributes to achieve reflected or stored XSS, resulting in high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability as reflected in the CVSS 9.0 score.

Advisories and patches from the XWiki project state that the problem is resolved in versions 14.10.4 and 15.0 RC1 by restricting data attribute names to allowed characters; the corresponding fixes are documented in the referenced GitHub commits and XCOMMONS-2606 Jira ticket, with no workarounds other than upgrading.

The EPSS score remains flat at its peak value of 0.2162 with no material upward trajectory after disclosure.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

`org.xwiki.commons:xwiki-commons-xml` is an XML library used by the open-source wiki platform XWiki. The HTML sanitizer, introduced in version 14.6-rc-1, allows the injection of arbitrary HTML code and thus cross-site scripting via invalid data attributes. This vulnerability does not affect restricted…

more

cleaning in HTMLCleaner as there attributes are cleaned and thus characters like `/` and `>` are removed in all attribute names. This problem has been patched in XWiki 14.10.4 and 15.0 RC1 by making sure that data attributes only contain allowed characters. There are no known workarounds apart from upgrading to a version including the fix.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control
Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
T1012 Query Registry Discovery
Adversaries may interact with the Windows Registry to gather information about the system, configuration, and installed software.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-29205Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-46732Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29201Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29206Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29515Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29506Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2022-36098Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-26480Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-40176Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-35162Same product: Xwiki Xwiki

Affected Assets

xwiki
xwiki
14.6 — 14.10.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

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Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

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Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

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Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.1.2
  • V1.3.2

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.

addresses: CWE-79

Penetration testing submits XSS payloads to web applications, detecting cross-site scripting flaws for subsequent remediation.

addresses: CWE-79

Validates web inputs to reject script-related content that could produce XSS.

addresses: CWE-79

Output validation against expected content can reject or sanitize script content in generated web pages, reducing XSS exploitability.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly target introduction of XSS via coding standards/testing (mostly), yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors unaddressed (partial).

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Patching and EOL replacement can remediate known XSS instances in libraries or frameworks (partial) but do nothing to enforce input neutralization in application code (none).

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

References