Security Resilience

CVE-2023-35166

Access Control in Xwiki 8.1 – 14.10.5

Public PoCHigh EPSSAccess Control
Published
20 June 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.62 99.2th percentile
Risk Priority 92 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-2023-35166 is a critical-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki. Its CVSS base score is 9.9 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.8% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

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

XWiki Platform, a generic wiki runtime, contains an authorization flaw that permits any user able to register a tip UI extension to execute arbitrary wiki content under the identity of the TipsPanel author. The issue stems from missing permission checks when processing such extensions and is tracked as CWE-863. It affects all releases prior to the fixes issued in XWiki 15.1-rc-1 and 14.10.5.

An authenticated attacker with low privileges can therefore obtain full read, write, and administrative control over the affected wiki instance, including the ability to modify pages, escalate rights, and access restricted content across scopes. The CVSS 9.9 rating reflects the combination of network attack vector, low complexity, and changed scope that leads to complete confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.

Public advisories published with the GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-h7cw-44vp-jq7h and the corresponding XWiki Jira ticket XWIKI-20281 describe the vulnerability and point to the corrective commit that restores proper authorization checks on tip UI extensions. Administrators are advised to upgrade to one of the patched versions.

EPSS scores for the CVE rose from lower values after disclosure to a recorded peak of 0.3022 on 2025-12-11 before receding to the current 0.2440, indicating a later increase in observed exploitation interest.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform offering runtime services for applications built on top of it. It's possible to execute any wiki content with the right of the TipsPanel author by creating a tip UI extension. This has been…

more

patched in XWiki 15.1-rc-1 and 14.10.5.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-49586Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-32069Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-50732Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-26056Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2024-38369Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2025-32971Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-46244Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2025-29924Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2025-53836Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2024-55662Same product: Xwiki Xwiki

Affected Assets

xwiki
xwiki
8.1 — 14.10.5

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.

addresses: CWE-863

Periodic review and update of procedures reduces incorrect authorization implementations over time.

addresses: CWE-863

Supervision identifies cases where authorization logic incorrectly permits unauthorized actions.

addresses: CWE-863

Defining permitted attribute values and auditing modifications reduces the chance of incorrect authorization outcomes due to tampered or missing labels.

addresses: CWE-863

The authorization process and usage restrictions help prevent incorrect authorization for remote access types.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing configuration and connection requirements helps ensure correct rather than incorrect authorization for wireless access.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing connection authorization processes for mobile devices helps ensure authorization decisions are correctly implemented rather than incorrect.

addresses: CWE-863

Monitoring account use, notifying on changes, and reviewing accounts for compliance corrects incorrect authorization assignments.

addresses: CWE-863

Ensures authorization decisions for external system use are correctly implemented and enforced.

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.

blocks

Requiring consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

blocks

A.5.18's provisioning, revocation, review and adjustment of access rights (incl. before role changes/termination, with segregation and owner approval) directly stops incorrect authorization decisions from being exploitable in the vast majority of cases; the bounded remainder is incorrectness inside the authorization logic itself (e.g. flawed conditional or missing check) rather than rights that were wrongly granted.

blocks

A.8.3 directly mandates restricting access to information per policies via configuration, identity/group controls, isolation, and dynamic techniques that enforce correct authorization decisions, addressing most but not all slices of CWE-863 (e.g., remainder in non-access-decision authorization errors like timing or environmental factors).

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-863, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.

References