CVE-2023-37277 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.6) Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server. A fix is available for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server — see the affected versions and patch details below.
XWiki Platform vulnerable to cross-site request forgery (CSRF) via the REST API
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-37277.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-37277 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server☕com.xpn.xwiki.platform:xwiki-core-rest-server☕com.xpn.xwiki.platform:xwiki-rest☕org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-serverReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
The REST API allows executing all actions via POST requests and accepts text/plain, multipart/form-data or application/www-form-urlencoded as content types which can be sent via regular HTML forms, thus allowing cross-site request forgery. With the interaction of a user with programming rights, this allows remote code execution through script macros and thus impacts the integrity, availability and confidentiality of the whole XWiki installation.
For regular cookie-based authentication, the vulnerability is mitigated by SameSite cookie restrictions but as of March 2023, these are not enabled by default in Firefox and Safari.
Patches
The vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 14.10.8 and 15.2 by requiring a CSRF token header for certain request types that are susceptible to CSRF attacks.
Workarounds
It is possible to check for the Origin header in a reverse proxy to protect the REST endpoint from CSRF attacks, see the Jira issue for an example configuration.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server | ≥ 1.8&&< 14.10.8 | 14.10.8org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server:14.10.8 |
| ☕Maven | com.xpn.xwiki.platform:xwiki-core-rest-server | ≥ 1.8&&< 14.10.8 | 14.10.8com.xpn.xwiki.platform:xwiki-core-rest-server:14.10.8 |
| ☕Maven | com.xpn.xwiki.platform:xwiki-rest | ≥ 1.8&&< 14.10.8 | 14.10.8com.xpn.xwiki.platform:xwiki-rest:14.10.8 |
| ☕Maven | org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server | ≥ 15.0-rc-1&&< 15.2 | 15.2org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server:15.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-rest-server to 14.10.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-37277 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-37277 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-37277. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-37277 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-37277 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.