Overview
This blog post focuses on the critical vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-32973 that affects XWiki, a popular platform for creating and managing wikis. This vulnerability, found in several versions of the software, can potentially allow attackers to gain programming rights on the affected wiki, leading to serious security implications such as system compromise and data leakage. The severity of this vulnerability and its widespread potential impact on XWiki users worldwide makes understanding and mitigating CVE-2025-32973 a priority.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-32973
Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.0)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise, data leakage
Affected Products
No phone number, email, or personal info required.
Product | Affected Versions
XWiki | 15.9-rc-1 to before 15.10.12
XWiki | 16.0.0-rc-1 to before 16.4.3
XWiki | 16.5.0-rc-1 to before 16.8.0-rc-1
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability lies in the process of editing a document in XWiki. When a user with programming rights edits a document that was last edited by a user without programming rights and contains an XWiki.ComponentClass, there is no warning issued. This allows an attacker to create a malicious object which, when edited by an admin user, grants programming rights to the object. For this, the attacker requires edit rights on at least one page to place the object.
Conceptual Example Code
Consider the following conceptual example demonstrating how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability:
POST /XWiki/editPage HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerable-wiki.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"pageId": "1234",
"content": "<XWiki.ComponentClass malicious_payload='...'>",
"lastEditedBy": "non-admin-user"
}In this example, an attacker with edit rights to a page sends a POST request to the editPage endpoint, injecting a malicious payload into an XWiki.ComponentClass within the content of the page. If this page is subsequently edited by an admin user, the malicious code is executed, and the attacker gains programming rights on the wiki.
To prevent this exploit, users are strongly advised to update to the patched versions: 15.10.12, 16.4.3, or 16.8.0-rc-1. If unable, implementing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) may offer temporary mitigation.