CVE-2023-50723: XWiki Platform remote code execution/programming rights with configuration section from any user account
Impact
Anyone who can edit an arbitrary wiki page in an XWiki installation can gain programming right through several cases of missing escaping in the code for displaying sections in the administration interface. This impacts the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the whole XWiki installation. Normally, all users are allowed to edit their own user profile so this should be exploitable by all users of the XWiki instance.
The easiest way to reproduce this is to edit any document with the object editor and add an object of type XWiki.ConfigurableClass ("Custom configurable sections"). Set "Display in section" and "Display in Category" to "other", set scope to "Wiki and all spaces" and "Heading" to {{async}}{{groovy}}services.logging.getLogger("attacker").error("Attack from Heading succeeded!"); println("Hello from Groovy!"){{/groovy}}{{/async}}. Click "Save". Open <xwiki-host>/xwiki/bin/view/Main/?sheet=XWiki.AdminSheet&viewer=content&editor=globaladmin§ion=other where <xwiki-host> is the URL of your XWiki installation. If this displays just "Hello from Groovy!" in a heading and generates an error message with content "Attack from Heading succeeded!" in XWiki's log, the attack succeeded. Similar attacks are also possible by creating this kind of object on a document with a specially crafted name, see the referenced Jira issues for more reproduction steps.
Patches This has been fixed in XWiki 14.10.15, 15.5.2 and 15.7RC1
Workarounds
It is possible to manually apply the fixes for the vulnerability by editing two pages in the wiki. This patch needs to be applied to the page XWiki.ConfigurableClassMacros. Further, the following patches need to be applied to the page XWiki.ConfigurableClass:
https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/749f6aee1bfbcf191c3734ea0aa9eba3aa63240e#diff-bf419a99140f3c12fd78ea30f855b63cfb74c1c976ff4436898266d9b37ad3ce https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/1157c1ecea395aac7f64cd8a6f484b1225416dc7#diff-bf419a99140f3c12fd78ea30f855b63cfb74c1c976ff4436898266d9b37ad3ce https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/0f367aaae4e0696f61cf5a67a75edd27d1d16db6
Note that also the page XWiki.ConfigurableClass needs to be changed to xwiki/2.1 syntax for the escaping to work properly but the security vulnerability is fixed also without changing the syntax.
References
https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/bd82be936c21b65dee367d558e3050b9b6995713 https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/749f6aee1bfbcf191c3734ea0aa9eba3aa63240e https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/1157c1ecea395aac7f64cd8a6f484b1225416dc7 https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/0f367aaae4e0696f61cf5a67a75edd27d1d16db6 https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-21122 https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-21121 https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-21194
Other sources
XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform. Starting in 2.3 and prior to versions 14.10.15, 15.5.2, and 15.7-rc-1, anyone who can edit an arbitrary wiki page in an XWiki installation can gain programming right through several cases of missing escaping in the code for displaying sections in the administration interface. This impacts the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the whole XWiki installation. Normally, all users are allowed to edit their own user profile so this should be exploitable by all users of the XWiki instance. This has been fixed in XWiki 14.10.15, 15.5.2 and 15.7RC1. The patches can be manually applied to the XWiki.ConfigurableClassMacros and XWiki.ConfigurableClass pages.
Affected Software
Remediation
Patch Available
Patch Available
Patch Available
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of CVE-2023-50723?
CVE-2023-50723 is considered a high severity vulnerability due to its potential impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
How do I fix CVE-2023-50723?
To fix CVE-2023-50723, upgrade to version 15.7-rc-1, 15.5.2, or 14.10.15 of the affected XWiki administration UI package.
Who is affected by CVE-2023-50723?
Any XWiki installation that allows users to edit arbitrary wiki pages is potentially affected by CVE-2023-50723.
What types of software are affected by CVE-2023-50723?
CVE-2023-50723 affects versions of the XWiki platform, specifically the xwiki-platform-administration-ui package.
What can happen if CVE-2023-50723 is exploited?
Exploitation of CVE-2023-50723 can allow unauthorized users to gain programming rights, leading to possible data compromise.