CVE-2025-53836
Published: 15 July 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-53836 is a critical-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in Xwiki Xwiki. Its CVSS base score is 9.9 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 9.6% 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
XWiki Rendering, the component responsible for converting textual input such as wiki syntax or HTML into output formats like XHTML, contains a flaw in its default macro content parser. Starting with version 4.2-milestone-1 and prior to the releases 13.10.11, 14.4.7, and 14.10, the parser fails to preserve the restricted attribute of the transformation context when processing nested macros. This defect affects the bundled cache and chart macros and is tracked under CWE-94 and CWE-863.
An authenticated attacker with low privileges can supply content that triggers nested macro execution, bypassing the restrictions that normally prevent script macros from running. Successful exploitation yields full control over the affected XWiki instance, enabling arbitrary code execution with impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability and with a changed scope, consistent with the CVSS 9.9 rating.
Security advisories and the associated patches direct administrators to upgrade to one of the fixed versions. As an interim step, comments can be disabled for untrusted users, although accounts possessing edit rights can still insert comments through the object editor.
The EPSS score has remained flat at 0.0550 with no observed rise after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-21398
Vulnerability details
XWiki Rendering is a generic rendering system that converts textual input in a given syntax (wiki syntax, HTML, etc) into another syntax (XHTML, etc). Starting in version 4.2-milestone-1 and prior to versions 13.10.11, 14.4.7, and 14.10, the default macro content…
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parser doesn't preserve the restricted attribute of the transformation context when executing nested macros. This allows executing macros that are normally forbidden in restricted mode, in particular script macros. The cache and chart macros that are bundled in XWiki use the vulnerable feature. This has been patched in XWiki 13.10.11, 14.4.7 and 14.10. To avoid the exploitation of this bug, comments can be disabled for untrusted users until an upgrade to a patched version has been performed. Note that users with edit rights will still be able to add comments via the object editor even if comments have been disabled.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The vulnerability enables low-privileged users (e.g., comment rights) to bypass restricted macro execution and achieve RCE via nested macros like Groovy in comments on the public-facing XWiki application, facilitating exploitation of public-facing applications and exploitation for privilege escalation.
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly remediates the vulnerability by applying patches to XWiki Rendering versions 13.10.11, 14.4.7, or 14.10 that fix the failure to preserve restricted context in nested macros.
Validates textual inputs in wiki syntax or HTML to block malicious nested macros that bypass restricted mode and execute forbidden script macros.
Enforces principle of least privilege by disabling comments or edit rights for untrusted users as a workaround to prevent exploitation via low-privilege inputs.