CVE-2023-28447 | Cross site scripting vulnerability in Javascript escaping in smarty/smarty

Smarty is a template engine for PHP. In affected versions smarty did not properly escape javascript code. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary JavaScript code in the context of the user's browser session. This may lead to unauthorized access to sensitive user data, manipulation of the web application's behavior, or unauthorized actions performed on behalf of the user. Users are advised to upgrade to either version 3.1.48 or to 4.3.1 to resolve this issue. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

Published: 2023-03-28 Last update: 2025-11-03 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-28447 is rated Moderate Risk (56.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.19%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-28447

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-28 0.89% 1.19% +0.30%
2 2026-05-22 1.16% 0.89% -0.27%
3 2026-05-05 — 1.16% —

Full EPSS history (21 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-28447

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 2.8 3.7 [email protected]
6.1 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 2.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-28447

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-28447

GHSA-7j98-h7fp-4vwj · Severity: high · Ecosystem: composer — smarty Cross-site Scripting vulnerability in Javascript escaping

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-28447

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-28447 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (smarty3, smarty4), 9 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 9. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-28447
ubuntu high CVE-2023-28447 high priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (civicrm, postfixadmin, smarty3, smarty4), 52 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): ignored 18, DNE 9, released 9, needs-triage 8, not-affected 5, needed 3. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-28447

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-28447

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
smarty smarty < 3.1.48 cpe:2.3:a:smarty:smarty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
smarty smarty >= 4.0.0, < 4.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:smarty:smarty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 36 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-28447

cvelogic Threat Intelligence