CVE-2023-53914

CriticalPublic PoC

Published: 17 December 2025

Published

17 December 2025

Modified

24 December 2025

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0154 81.6th percentile

Risk Priority 21 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2023-53914 is a critical-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Ulicms Ulicms. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 18.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-14 (Permitted Actions Without Identification or Authentication) and AC-2 (Account Management).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

AC-14 Permitted Actions Without Identification or Authentication good match

prevent

Prohibits unauthorized actions like admin user creation without identification and authentication, directly preventing the exploitation of this unauthenticated bypass.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Requires validation of inputs to the UserController, mitigating mass assignment that allows setting administrative privileges via crafted POST parameters.

AC-2 Account Management good match

prevent

Mandates managed processes for account creation with approvals, preventing unauthenticated generation of administrative accounts.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit a public-facing web application (UliCMS admin endpoint) via crafted POST requests, directly mapping to T1190: Exploit Public-Facing Application.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

UliCMS 2023.1 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to create admin users through mass assignment in the UserController. Attackers can send a crafted POST request to the admin index.php endpoint with specific parameters to generate an administrative…

account with full system access.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2023-53914 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in UliCMS 2023.1, caused by mass assignment in the UserController. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to create administrative users by sending a crafted POST request to the admin index.php endpoint with specific parameters, granting full system access. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-639 and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), reflecting its critical severity.

Unauthenticated attackers with network access can exploit this vulnerability without privileges or user interaction. By crafting and submitting the POST request, they can generate a new administrative account, achieving complete control over the UliCMS instance, including high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Advisories such as the VulnCheck report and Exploit-DB entry (51486) document the vulnerability, including proof-of-concept exploits demonstrating the mass assignment technique. The archived UliCMS site provides additional context on the affected software.