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GHSA-663w-2xp3-5739

CriticalCVSS 9.6 / 10
Published Oct 25, 2023·Last modified Feb 4, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

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:

Risk Scores
Base Score
9.6

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. The attacker needs the user to perform some action, like clicking a link. The vulnerability can affect other systems as well, not just the initial system. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
8.8

Exploitation activity has been observed. Apply available patches or mitigations urgently.

EPSS
N/A

Probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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