Security Resilience

CVE-2023-42458

XSS in Zope ≤ 4.8.10

Public PoCXSS
Published
21 September 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 3.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0071 53th percentile
Risk Priority 33 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-2023-42458 is a low-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Zope Zope. Its CVSS base score is 3.7 (Low).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Junk Data (T1001.001); ranked in the top 47% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Zope is an open-source web application server. Prior to versions 4.8.10 and 5.8.5, there is a stored cross site scripting vulnerability for SVG images. Note that an image tag with an SVG image as source is never vulnerable, even when…

more

the SVG image contains malicious code. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would first need to upload an image, and then trick a user into following a specially crafted link. Patches are available in Zope 4.8.10 and 5.8.5. As a workaround, make sure the "Add Documents, Images, and Files" permission is only assigned to trusted roles. By default, only the Manager has this permission.

CWE(s)
CWE-79CWE-80

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 →
T1001.003 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.
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 →
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
attack.mitre.org →
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-44389Same product: Zope Zope
CVE-2023-41048Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-25833Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-3971Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-0007Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-30615Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-20179Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-35153Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2020-13562Shared CWE-79, CWE-80
CVE-2023-34354Shared CWE-79, CWE-80

Affected Assets

zope
zope
≤ 4.8.10 · 5.0.0 — 5.8.5

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.1.2
  • V1.3.2
  • V1.2.1
  • V1.3.1

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.

CA-8 Penetration Testing
addresses: CWE-79

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

SI-10 Information Input Validation
addresses: CWE-79

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

SI-15 Information Output Filtering
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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.5.6 Contact with special interest groups partial match
blocks

A.5.6 only promotes membership in groups to improve knowledge, receive alerts, and share information; it performs no action that stops XSS exploitation (or even the underlying neutralization defect) and is a pure dependency for other controls per the owner's labeling rule.

References