Overview
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a significant vulnerability, CVE-2024-21648, in XWiki Platform. XWiki Platform is a widely used wiki platform that provides runtime services for a variety of applications. This vulnerability specifically pertains to the rollback function within the platform, which has been found to lack proper right protection measures. As a result, users can roll back to a previous version of the page and gain rights they no longer possess, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage. Given the wide usage of XWiki Platform, this vulnerability could have profound implications if not addressed promptly.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2024-21648
Severity: High (8.0 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise and potential data leakage
Affected Products
No phone number, email, or personal info required.
Product | Affected Versions
XWiki Platform | Versions prior to 14.10.17, 15.5.3, and 15.8-rc-1
How the Exploit Works
The exploit takes advantage of the missing right protection in the rollback function of XWiki Platform. This allows a user to roll back a page to an earlier version, in which they had higher privileges. By doing so, they can regain access rights that had been previously revoked. The attacker could then potentially modify, delete, or disclose sensitive data, leading to system compromise or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
The following is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. In this case, the user sends a POST request to the rollback endpoint of a page where they used to have higher privileges.
POST /rollback HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer [user_token]
{
"page_id": "[page_id]",
"version": "[old_version_number]"
}In this example, the `page_id` represents the unique identifier of the page the user wants to roll back, and `version` represents the version number the user wants to roll back to. The server then processes the rollback without adequately checking if the user still has the necessary rights for that version, thus allowing privilege escalation.
Mitigation
Users of affected versions of XWiki Platform are advised to upgrade to versions 14.10.17, 15.5.3, or 15.8-rc-1, where the issue has been patched. If an immediate upgrade is not feasible, implementing Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) rules to block or alert on suspicious rollback requests can serve as a temporary mitigation measure. However, these are not long-term solutions and upgrading to a patched version is strongly recommended.