Security Resilience

CVE-2023-37912

Xwiki-Rendering ≤ 14.10.6

Public PoC
Published
25 October 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View 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 0.012 69th percentile
Risk Priority 77 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-2023-37912 is a critical-severity Privilege Context Switching Error (CWE-270) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki-Rendering. Its CVSS base score is 9.9 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Junk Data (T1001.001); ranked in the top 31% 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 Rendering, the component responsible for converting textual syntax in the XWiki platform, contains a context-handling flaw in its footnote macro. Affected packages are org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-core-rendering-macro-footnotes and org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-rendering-macro-footnotes prior to 14.10.6, and org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-rendering-macro-footnotes prior to 15.1-rc-1. The macro renders its content in a context that may differ from the page where it was defined, enabling privilege escalation when combined with the include macro.

An authenticated user with only basic edit rights can embed a footnote macro that includes attacker-controlled content, thereby obtaining programming rights. Successful exploitation yields remote code execution on the XWiki server, with full impact on the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the installation. The vulnerability carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.9.

The GitHub Security Advisory and XWiki Jira entry state that the issue is resolved in the listed releases and that no workaround exists other than upgrading the footnote macro. The associated EPSS score has remained flat at 0.0989 since disclosure, indicating no material increase in observed exploitation interest.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

XWiki Rendering is a generic Rendering system that converts textual input in a given syntax into another syntax. Prior to version 14.10.6 of `org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-core-rendering-macro-footnotes` and `org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-rendering-macro-footnotes` and prior to version 15.1-rc-1 of `org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-rendering-macro-footnotes`, the footnote macro executed its content in…

more

a potentially different context than the one in which it was defined. In particular in combination with the include macro, this allows privilege escalation from a simple user account in XWiki to programming rights and thus remote code execution, impacting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the whole XWiki installation. This vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 14.10.6 and 15.1-rc-1. There is no workaround apart from upgrading to a fixed version of the footnote macro.

CWE(s)
CWE-270NVD-CWE-noinfo

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control
Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-37908Same product: Xwiki Xwiki-Rendering
CVE-2025-66474Same product: Xwiki Xwiki-Rendering
CVE-2023-26475Same vendor: Xwiki
CVE-2025-49583Same vendor: Xwiki
CVE-2026-24128Same product: Xwiki Xwiki-Rendering
CVE-2025-49581Same vendor: Xwiki
CVE-2024-8641Shared CWE-270
CVE-2025-9408Shared CWE-270
CVE-2024-46978Same vendor: Xwiki
CVE-2024-12570Shared CWE-270

Affected Assets

xwiki
xwiki-rendering
15.0 · ≤ 14.10.6

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V13.2.2

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.AA-05 partial match
blocks

Enforcing least-privilege authorization policies and reviews directly prevents improper privilege changes across contexts.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Integrating secure-development practices catches and eliminates context-switching privilege errors during design and coding.

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.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
blocks

A.5.15 only requires defining a topic-specific access control policy and requirements (with references to other controls); it does not itself enforce rules or stop a privilege context switching error from being present or exploited

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
blocks

A.5.18 governs the provisioning, review, and revocation of access rights granted to an already-authenticated identity; it has no bearing on whether the product itself correctly manages privilege transitions between contexts as described in CWE-270.

A.8.18 Use of privileged utility programs partial match
degrades

Restricting privileged utilities reduces exposure to context-switch privilege errors.

A.8.19 Installation of software on operational systems partial match
removes
A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
blocks

Privileged-access-rights control directly addresses improper privilege elevation during context switches.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
blocks

Secure-SDLC practices can catch privilege-handling defects early but do not guarantee runtime correctness.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (higher-evidence rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Ubuntu 22.04 (1 rule)
  • V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. blocks CWE-270

References