CVE-2023-51447 | Decidim vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) in the dynamic file uploads

Decidim is a participatory democracy framework. Starting in version 0.27.0 and prior to versions 0.27.5 and 0.28.0, the dynamic file upload feature is subject to potential cross-site scripting attacks in case the attacker manages to modify the file names of the records being uploaded to the server. This appears in sections where the user controls the file upload dialogs themselves and has the technical knowledge to change the file names through the dynamic upload endpoint. Therefore I believe it would require the attacker to control the whole session of the particular user but in any case, this needs to be fixed. Successful exploit of this vulnerability would require the user to have successfully uploaded a file blob to the server with a malicious file name and then have the possibility to direct the other user to the edit page of the record where the attachment is attached. The users are able to craft the direct upload requests themselves controlling the file name that gets stored to the database. The attacker is able to change the filename e.g. to `<svg onload=alert('XSS')>` if they know how to craft these requests themselves. And then enter the returned blob ID to the form inputs manually by modifying the edit page source. Versions 0.27.5 and 0.28.0 contain a patch for this issue. As a workaround, disable dynamic uploads for the instance, e.g. from proposals.

Published: 2024-02-20 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-51447 is rated Moderate Risk (47.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.49%). Mandatory action: 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-2023-51447

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 2025-11-21 0.78% 0.49% -0.30%
2 2025-11-18 0.49% 0.78% +0.30%
3 2025-07-11 0.49%

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-51447

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/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: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: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:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.1 4.2 [email protected]
5.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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: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: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.
2.3 2.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-51447

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-51447

GHSA-9w99-78rj-hmxq · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: rubygems — Cross-site scripting (XSS) in the dynamic file uploads

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-51447

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
decidim decidim >= 0.27.0, < 0.27.5 cpe:2.3:a:decidim:decidim:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*

References for CVE-2023-51447

cvelogic Threat Intelligence