Overview
One of the critical aspects of cybersecurity is the security of configuration files, which often contain sensitive information about the system and its components. A recent vulnerability, CVE-2025-55747, affecting the XWiki Platform has brought this issue to the forefront. This platform, a generic wiki platform offering runtime services, is widely used for building applications on top of it. The vulnerability allows unauthorized access to configuration files through the webjars API, potentially leading to system compromise or data leakage.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-55747
Severity: Critical (9.1)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
XWiki Platform | 6.1-milestone-2 through 16.10.6
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability lies in the webjars API of the XWiki Platform. An attacker can craft a specific request to this API and gain access to the platform’s configuration files. These files may contain sensitive information like server details, database credentials, and API keys that could be used to compromise the system or leak data.
Conceptual Example Code
Here’s a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability. This example is a simple HTTP GET request to the vulnerable endpoint:
GET /webjars/../../../../etc/config.xml HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.comThis request tries to traverse the directory structure and attempts to access a configuration file (`config.xml`) in the `etc` directory. If successful, the attacker would receive the configuration file’s contents in the server’s response.
Mitigation and Remediation
The best way to mitigate this vulnerability is by applying the vendor-supplied patch. XWiki has fixed this issue in version 16.10.7 of the platform. If you’re unable to apply the patch immediately, you can use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) as a temporary mitigation measure. These tools can be configured to block or alert on attempts to access configuration files through the webjars API.
