Security Resilience

CVE-2023-45136

XSS in Xwiki 12.0 – 14.10.12

Public PoCXSS
Published
25 October 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.6
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.051 92th percentile
Risk Priority 93 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-2023-45136 is a critical-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki. Its CVSS base score is 9.6 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Protocol or Service Impersonation (T1001.003); ranked in the top 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 is affected by a reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability in the page creation form when document names are validated according to a name strategy, which is disabled by default. The issue impacts versions starting with 12.0-rc-1 and prior to 12.10.12 and 15.5-rc-1, and stems from insufficient escaping in the createinline.vm template that is included in the platform WAR file. The vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 9.6 and is tracked under CWE-79.

An unauthenticated attacker can exploit the flaw by crafting a malicious link that triggers arbitrary script execution in the context of any user who opens it. Depending on the targeted user's rights, this can result in remote code execution along with complete read and write access across the XWiki installation.

Security advisories and patches direct administrators to upgrade to XWiki 14.10.12 or 15.5-rc-1, which add the required escaping. The same changes can be applied manually to the vulnerable template for environments that cannot perform a full upgrade.

The EPSS score has reached a peak of 0.7496 with a current value of 0.7069.

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. When document names are validated according to a name strategy (disabled by default), XWiki starting in version 12.0-rc-1 and prior to versions 12.10.12…

more

and 15.5-rc-1 is vulnerable to a reflected cross-site scripting attack in the page creation form. This allows an attacker to execute arbitrary actions with the rights of the user opening the malicious link. Depending on the rights of the user, this may allow remote code execution and full read and write access to the whole XWiki installation. This has been patched in XWiki 14.10.12 and 15.5-rc-1 by adding appropriate escaping. The vulnerable template file `createinline.vm` is part of XWiki's WAR and can be patched by manually applying the changes from 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-2023-45134Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29201Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-26480Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29515Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2022-36098Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29506Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-35162Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-29207Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-45137Same product: Xwiki Xwiki
CVE-2023-40176Same product: Xwiki Xwiki

Affected Assets

xwiki
xwiki
15.5 · 12.0 — 14.10.12 · 15.0 — 15.5

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

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.

removes
removes
removes
removes
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