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CVE-2023-48240 — Cookies are sent to external images in...

CRITICAL

Cookies are sent to external images in rendered diff (and server side request forgery)

Published November 20, 2023Updated September 10, 2026Source: osv

Summary

### Impact The rendered diff in XWiki embeds images to be able to compare the contents and not display a difference for an actually unchanged image. For this, XWiki requests all embedded images on the server side. These requests are also sent for images from other domains and include all cookies that were sent in the original request to ensure that images with restricted view right can be compared. This allows an attacker to steal login and session cookies that allow impersonating the current user who views the diff. The attack can be triggered with an image that references the rendered diff, thus making it easy to trigger. More concretely, to reproduce, add 101 different images with references to the attacker's server. In any place add an image with a reference to `/xwiki/bin/view/Image%20Cookie%20Test/?xpage=changes&rev1=1.1&rev2=2.1&include=renderedChanges` where `Image%20Cookie%20Test` needs to be replaced by the path to the document with the images and the two revisions should match the revision before/after adding the images. Whenever a user views that image, the user's login cookies should be sent to the attacker's server. The 101 images are to circumvent the cache that has a default maximum size of 100 entries. Apart from stealing login cookies, this also allows server-side request forgery (the result of any successful request is returned in the image's source) and viewing protected content as once a resource is cached, it is returned for all users. As only successful requests are cached, the cache will be filled by the first user who is allowed to access the resource. ### Patches This has been patched in XWiki 14.10.15, 15.5.1 and 15.6. The rendered diff now only downloads images from trusted domains. Further, cookies are only sent when the image's domain is the same the requested domain. The cache has been changed to be specific for each user. ### Workarounds As a workaround, the image embedding feature can be disabled by deleting `xwiki-platform-diff-xml-<version>.jar` in `WEB-INF/lib/`. ### References * https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-20818 * https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/bff0203e739b6e3eb90af5736f04278c73c2a8bb

Advisory Timeline

  • First published November 20, 2023 (1057 days ago).
  • Last revised September 10, 2026 — 1024 days after initial publication.

Remediation

Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.

Maven
Update org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml to 15.6 or later
<!-- Update pom.xml dependency version to 15.6 for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml -->
Maven
Update org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml to 14.10.15 or later
<!-- Update pom.xml dependency version to 14.10.15 for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml -->
Maven
Update org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml to 15.5.1 or later
<!-- Update pom.xml dependency version to 15.5.1 for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml -->

After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.

Affected Packages (3)

Affects 1 ecosystem: maven (1).

PackageEcosystemAffectedFixed In
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml
maven
All versions15.6
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml
maven
All versions14.10.15
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml
maven
All versions15.5.1

Vulnerability Classification

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 9.0 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-48240?
Cookies are sent to external images in rendered diff (and server side request forgery) This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of CRITICAL (CVSS score: 9.0/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2023-48240?
CVE-2023-48240 affects org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2023-48240 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score
9.0

Exploitation is straightforward and causes maximum impact. Patch immediately.

Also Known As

GHSA-7rfg-6273-f5wp

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