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org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-legacy-notification-activitymacro Eval Injection vulnerability

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Apr 12, 2023 in xwiki/xwiki-platform • Updated Apr 25, 2023

Package

maven org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-legacy-notification-activitymacro (Maven)

Affected versions

>= 10.9, < 13.10.11
>= 14.0-rc-1, < 14.4.7
>= 14.5, < 14.10

Patched versions

13.10.11
14.4.7
14.10

Description

Impact

Any user with view rights on commonly accessible documents including the legacy notification activity macro can execute arbitrary Groovy, Python or Velocity code in XWiki leading to full access to the XWiki installation. The root cause is improper escaping of the macro parameters of the legacy notification activity macro. This macro is installed by default in XWiki.

A proof of concept exploit is

{{activity wikis="~" /~}~} {{async async=~"true~" cached=~"false~" context=~"doc.reference~"~}~}{{groovy~}~}println(~"Hello from Groovy!~"){{/groovy~}~}"/}}

If the output of this macro is

The [notifications] macro is a standalone macro and it cannot be used inline. Click on this message for details.
Hello from Groovy!"    displayMinorEvents="false" displayRSSLink="false" /}}

or similar, the XWiki installation is vulnerable. The vulnerability can be exploited via every wiki page that is editable including the user's profile, but also with just view rights using the HTMLConverter that is part of the CKEditor integration which is bundled with XWiki.

Patches

The vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 13.10.11, 14.4.7 and 14.10.

Workarounds

The issue can be fixed by replacing the code of the legacy notification activity macro by the patched version. Alternatively, if the macro isn't used, the document XWiki.Notifications.Code.Legacy.ActivityMacro can also be completely deleted.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

References

@tmortagne tmortagne published to xwiki/xwiki-platform Apr 12, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Apr 12, 2023
Reviewed Apr 12, 2023
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Apr 15, 2023
Last updated Apr 25, 2023

Severity

Critical

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.200%
(58th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2023-29209

GHSA ID

GHSA-9pc2-x9qf-7j2q

Source code

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