CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2023-36471 — Xwiki commons is the common modules used by other XWiki top level projects
Xwiki commons is the common modules used by other XWiki top level projects. The HTML sanitizer that is included in XWiki since version 14.6RC1 allowed form and input HTML tags. In the context of XWiki, this allows an attacker without script right to either create forms that can be used for phishing attacks or also in the context of a sheet, the attacker could add an input like `{{html}}<input type="hidden" name="content" value="{{groovy}}println("Hello from Groovy!")" />{{/html}}` that would allow remote code execution when it is submitted by an admin (the sheet is rendered as part of the edit form). The attacker would need to ensure that the edit form looks plausible, though, which can be non-trivial as without script right the attacker cannot display the regular content of the document. This has been patched in XWiki 14.10.6 and 15.2RC1 by removing the central form-related tags from the list of allowed tags. Users are advised to upgrade. As a workaround an admin can manually disallow the tags by adding `form, input, select, textarea, button` to the configuration option `xml.htmlElementSanitizer.forbidTags` in the `xwiki.properties` configuration file.
- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9 (3.1)
- Published
- 2023-06-29
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- software/application
- Weaknesses
- CWE-74, CWE-79
Affected products
- xwiki / commons
- xwiki / commons / 15.0
- xwiki / commons / 15.1
Matched remediation archetype
Cross-site scripting and unsafe browser output
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Trace reflected, stored, and DOM-derived untrusted values into HTML, attributes, URLs, styles, scripts, and client-side template sinks.
- Identify affected origins, authenticated user roles, sensitive browser capabilities, and where content is shared across tenants.
- Review framework escaping, rich-text sanitization, legacy templates, and client-side rendering paths.
Remediate safely
- Use context-aware framework output encoding and safe DOM APIs; keep untrusted data out of executable contexts.
- Sanitize intentionally supported markup with a maintained allowlist policy and validate URLs and attributes separately.
- Update affected rendering components and add tests for every output context using inert sentinel markup.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
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