CVE-2023-33186 | Cross-site scripting vulnerability in Zulip Server development branch via topic tooltip

Zulip is an open-source team collaboration tool with unique topic-based threading that combines the best of email and chat to make remote work productive and delightful. The main development branch of Zulip Server from May 2, 2023 and later, including beta versions 7.0-beta1 and 7.0-beta2, is vulnerable to a cross-site scripting vulnerability in tooltips on the message feed. An attacker who can send messages could maliciously craft a topic for the message, such that a victim who hovers the tooltip for that topic in their message feed triggers execution of JavaScript code controlled by the attacker.

Published: 2023-05-30 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-33186 is rated Moderate Risk (59.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.89%). 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-2023-33186

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 2026-06-07 0.77% 0.89% +0.12%
2 2026-05-31 0.25% 0.77% +0.51%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.25% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-33186

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.2 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
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.
 2.3 5.3 [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-2023-33186

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-33186

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
zulip zulip_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:a:zulip:zulip_server:7.0:beta1:*:*:*:*:*:*
zulip zulip_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:a:zulip:zulip_server:7.0:beta2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-33186

cvelogic Threat Intelligence