CVE-2023-37913 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) Path Traversal vulnerability in org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer — see the affected versions and patch details below.
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer vulnerable to arbitrary server side file writing from account through office converter
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-37913.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer☕org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importerReal-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
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. To reproduce the issue on versions since XWiki 14.0, execute the following steps:
- Activate the office server
- Upload an arbitrary file with the extension .doc, e.g., to your user profile (you can use a regular plain text file, only the extension matters).
- Use the attachment move feature to rename the file to ../../../../../tmp/Hello from XWiki.txt where the latter part is the location of a file you want to write on the server. The number of ../ depends on the directory depth, the provided example should work on Linux with the demo distribution.
- Click the "preview" link to trigger the office converter
For information how to reproduce on older versions, see the Jira issue.
To the best of our knowledge, this attack is not possible when the office conversion process doesn't run as the code fails before the file is written.
Patches
This vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 14.10.8 and 15.3RC1.
Workarounds
There are no known workarounds apart from disabling the office converter.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer | ≥ 3.5-milestone-1&&< 14.10.8 | 14.10.8org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer:14.10.8 |
| ☕Maven | org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer | ≥ 15.0-rc-1&&< 15.3-rc-1 | 15.3-rc-1org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer:15.3-rc-1 |
Affected Products
xwikixwikiResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
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-office-importer, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-office-importer to 14.10.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-37913 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-37913 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.