CVE-2023-36468 | Upgrading doesn't prevent exploiting vulnerable XWiki documents

Exp

XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform offering runtime services for applications built on top of it. When an XWiki installation is upgraded and that upgrade contains a fix for a bug in a document, just a new version of that document is added. In some cases, it's still possible to exploit the vulnerability that was fixed in the new version. The severity of this depends on the fixed vulnerability, for the purpose of this advisory take CVE-2022-36100/GHSA-2g5c-228j-p52x as example - it is easily exploitable with just view rights and critical. When XWiki is upgraded from a version before the fix for it (e.g., 14.3) to a version including the fix (e.g., 14.4), the vulnerability can still be reproduced by adding `rev=1.1` to the URL used in the reproduction steps so remote code execution is possible even after upgrading. Therefore, this affects the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the whole XWiki installation. This vulnerability also affects manually added script macros that contained security vulnerabilities that were later fixed by changing the script macro without deleting the versions with the security vulnerability from the history. This vulnerability doesn't affect freshly installed versions of XWiki. Further, this vulnerability doesn't affect content that is only loaded from the current version of a document like the code of wiki macros or UI extensions. This vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 14.10.7 and 15.2RC1 by forcing old revisions to be executed in a restricted mode that disables all script macros. As a workaround, admins can manually delete old revisions of affected documents. A script could be used to identify all installed documents and delete the history for them. However, also manually added and later corrected code may be affected by this vulnerability so it is easy to miss documents.

Published: 2023-06-29 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-36468 is rated High Exploit Risk (75/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.61%). 3 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2023-36468

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-36468

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 2026-06-15 9.24% 1.61% -7.63%
2 2026-04-25 10.58% 9.24% -1.35%
3 2026-03-24 — 10.58% —

Full EPSS history (16 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-36468

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.9 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.1 6.0 [email protected]
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-36468

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-36468

GHSA-8q9q-r9v2-644m · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: maven — Upgrading doesn't prevent exploiting vulnerable XWiki documents

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-36468

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
xwiki xwiki >= 2.0, < 14.10.7 cpe:2.3:a:xwiki:xwiki:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
xwiki xwiki 15.0 cpe:2.3:a:xwiki:xwiki:15.0:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
xwiki xwiki 15.0 cpe:2.3:a:xwiki:xwiki:15.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
xwiki xwiki 15.1 cpe:2.3:a:xwiki:xwiki:15.1:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
xwiki xwiki 15.1 cpe:2.3:a:xwiki:xwiki:15.1:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-36468

cvelogic Threat Intelligence