org.xwiki.rendering:xwiki-rendering-xml Improper Neutralization of Invalid Characters in Identifiers in Web Pages vulnerability

CVE-2023-37908 → View on GitHub ↗ View on CVE.org ↗ View on NVD ↗

Description

Impact

The cleaning of attributes during XHTML rendering, introduced in version 14.6-rc-1, allowed the injection of arbitrary HTML code and thus cross-site scripting via invalid attribute names. This can be exploited, e.g., via the link syntax in any content that supports XWiki syntax like comments in XWiki: 

[[Link1>>https://XWiki.example.com||/onmouseover="alert('XSS1')"]]

When a user moves the mouse over this link, the malicious JavaScript code is executed in the context of the user session. When this user is a privileged user who has programming rights, this allows server-side code execution with programming rights, impacting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the XWiki instance.

While this attribute was correctly recognized as not allowed, the attribute was still printed with a prefix data-xwiki-translated-attribute- without further cleaning or validation.

Note that while versions below 14.6 are not vulnerable to this particular vulnerability, they are still vulnerable to XSS through attributes in XWiki syntax, see the corresponding advisory.

Patches

This problem has been patched in XWiki 14.10.4 and 15.0 RC1 by removing characters not allowed in data attributes and then validating the cleaned attribute again.

Workarounds

There are no known workarounds apart from upgrading to a version including the fix.

References

  • https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XRENDERING-697
  • https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-rendering/commit/f4d5acac451dccaf276e69f0b49b72221eef5d2f

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
* Open an issue in Jira XWiki
* Email us at XWiki Security mailing-list

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
critical
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2023-10-25 21:02:49 UTC
Updated
2023-11-10 05:04:11 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2023-10-25 21:02:49 UTC
NVD published
2023-10-25

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
1.46% 80.50%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
9.7 3.1 —
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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: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: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.

Identifiers

Type Value
GHSA GHSA-663w-2xp3-5739 ↗
CVE CVE-2023-37908 ↗

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CWE-83 Improper Neutralization of Script in Attributes in a Web Page
CWE-86 Improper Neutralization of Invalid Characters in Identifiers in Web Pages

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
maven org.xwiki.rendering:xwiki-rendering-xml >= 14.6-rc-1, < 14.10.4 14.10.4 —

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence