Vulnerability Database

362,176

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2023-37913 — org.xwiki.platform / xwiki-platform-office-importer

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform offering runtime services for applications built on top of it. Starting in version 3.5-milestone-1 and prior to versions 14.10.8 and 15.3-rc-1, triggering the office converter with a specially crafted file name allows writing the attachment's content to an attacker-controlled location on the server as long as the Java process has write access to that location. In particular in the combination with attachment moving, a feature introduced in XWiki 14.0, this is easy to reproduce but it also possible to reproduce in versions as old as XWiki 3.5 by uploading the attachment through the REST API which doesn't remove / or \ from the filename. As the mime type of the attachment doesn't matter for the exploitation, this could e.g., be used to replace the jar-file of an extension which would allow executing arbitrary Java code and thus impact the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the XWiki installation. This vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 14.10.8 and 15.3RC1. There are no known workarounds apart from disabling the office converter.

CVSS v3:

  • Severity: Critical
  • Score: 9.9
  • AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.