CVE-2025-32974
Xwiki 15.9 – 15.10.8
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-32974 is a critical-severity Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output (CWE-116) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki. Its CVSS base score is 9.0 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548); ranked at the 27th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-2 (Account Management) and AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
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, a generic wiki platform, contains a flaw in its required rights analysis mechanism that fails to account for TextArea properties using the default content type. The issue affects versions from 15.9-rc-1 through 15.10.7 and from 16.0.0-rc-1 through 16.1.x, where the editor warning introduced in 15.9 for script macros that could escalate privileges does not inspect these properties, allowing hidden malicious content to persist on pages.
An attacker with standard page editing rights can place executable scripts inside the overlooked TextArea fields. When a user possessing script, admin, or programming rights later edits the same page, the scripts execute in that elevated context, enabling full impact on the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the XWiki instance.
The official XWiki security advisory and the linked GitHub commit indicate that the vulnerability is resolved by upgrading to 15.10.8 or 16.2.0, which extend the rights analysis to cover the previously omitted TextArea cases. The associated Jira ticket XWIKI-22002 provides additional technical detail on the fix.
EPSS scores rose from a low baseline to a peak of 0.0138, indicating emerging exploitation interest after disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-12740
Vulnerability Data
XWiki is a generic wiki platform. In versions starting from 15.9-rc-1 to before 15.10.8 and from 16.0.0-rc-1 to before 16.2.0, the required rights analysis doesn't consider TextAreas with default content type. When editing a page, XWiki warns since version 15.9…
more
when there is content on the page like a script macro that would gain more rights due to the editing. This analysis doesn't consider certain kinds of properties, allowing a user to put malicious scripts in there that will be executed after a user with script, admin, or programming rights edited the page. Such a malicious script could impact the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the whole XWiki installation. This issue has been patched in versions 15.10.8 and 16.2.0.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 5 hardening rules · 5 OS baselines
V1.1.2V1.2.1V1.2.3
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Account management directly governs assignment and tracking of privileges so proper implementation stops the weakness from being introduced.
Requiring explicit access-control decisions ensures privileges are evaluated rather than assumed or omitted.
Access enforcement applies the correct privilege checks at every request, structurally preventing unintended spheres of control.
Separation of duties constrains how privileges may be assigned, reducing the chance of overly broad actor control.
Least privilege is the direct countermeasure to improper privilege management; implementing it eliminates the root cause.
Binding security attributes to subjects/objects supplies the mechanism needed to track and enforce privileges correctly.
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 enforces least privilege/SoD and periodic reviews that directly remove most privilege-assignment defects, yet CWE-269 also covers escalation paths and role design outside a single access-management control.
Secure SDLC practices directly require proper output encoding to prevent injection and message malformation.
PR.AA-01 supplies credential/identity lifecycle support that can reduce some privilege-assignment errors but does not itself assign, modify, or check privileges, leaving most of CWE-269's risk unaddressed.
Config baselines and default reviews can enforce some privilege-related settings (one facet) but do not address code-level assignment/tracking logic that defines CWE-269.
PR.PS-05 can partially limit exploitability of some privilege issues via execution restrictions, but does not address the core design/implementation flaws of CWE-269 at all.
PR.DS-10 protects data-in-use without touching privilege assignment/tracking, so it neither prevents CWE-269 nor removes more than one narrow facet of its risk.
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.
Requiring owner approval, segregation of duties, and periodic reviews prevents the assignment of excessive or unnecessary privileges to users or processes.
Enforcing minimum-necessary privileges, temporary grants, and separation of administrative versus normal identities prevents the over-assignment of rights that CWE-269 describes.
Secure coding standards explicitly require correct output encoding and escaping to preserve message structure.
Security testing can detect missing or incorrect encoding but does not itself implement the control.
Dynamic techniques that grant the minimum necessary rights for a given time window and revoke them afterward reduce the window in which excessive or unnecessary privileges can be exploited.
Explicit restrictions on privileged access and segregation of duties limit the scope of privileges that can be assigned, reducing the chance that excessive or unnecessary privileges are granted to entities.
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` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Windows 10 (1 rule)
- V-220712 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows 11 (1 rule)
- V-253269 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
- V-225007 Only administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
- V-205746 Windows Server 2019 must only allow Administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2022 (1 rule)
- V-254428 Windows Server 2022 must only allow administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269