CVE-2023-38491 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.7) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in getkirby/cms. A fix is available for getkirby/cms — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Kirby vulnerable to Cross-site scripting (XSS) from MIME type auto-detection of uploaded files
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2023-38491.
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-2023-38491 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
getkirby/cms🐘getkirby/cms🐘getkirby/cms🐘getkirby/cms🐘getkirby/cmsReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
TL;DR
This vulnerability affects all Kirby sites that might have potential attackers in the group of authenticated Panel users or that allow external visitors to upload an arbitrary file to the content folder.
Your Kirby sites are not affected if they don't allow file uploads for untrusted users or visitors or if the file extensions of uploaded files are limited to a fixed safe list.
The attack requires user interaction by another user or visitor and cannot be automated.
Introduction
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of vulnerability that allows to execute any kind of JavaScript code inside the Panel session of the same or other users. In the Panel, a harmful script can for example trigger requests to Kirby's API with the permissions of the victim.
Such vulnerabilities are critical if you might have potential attackers in your group of authenticated Panel users. They can escalate their privileges if they get access to the Panel session of an admin user. Depending on your site, other JavaScript-powered attacks are possible.
Impact
An editor with write access to the Kirby Panel could upload a file with an unknown file extension like .xyz that contains HTML code including harmful content like <script> tags. The direct link to that file could be sent to other users or visitors of the site. If the victim opened that link in a browser where they are logged in to Kirby and the file had not been opened by anyone since the upload, Kirby would serve the file with an incorrect MIME type of text/html. The browser would then run the script, which could for example trigger requests to Kirby's API with the permissions of the victim.
The issue was caused by the underlying Kirby\Http\Response::file() method, which didn't have an explicit fallback if the MIME type could not be determined from the file extension. If you use this method in site or plugin code, these uses may be affected by the same vulnerability.
Patches
The problem has been patched in Kirby 3.5.8.3, Kirby 3.6.6.3, Kirby 3.7.5.2, Kirby 3.8.4.1 and Kirby 3.9.6. Please update to one of these or a later version to fix the vulnerability.
In all of the mentioned releases, we have fixed the affected method to use a fallback MIME type of text/plain and set the X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff header if the MIME type of the file is unknown.
Credits
Thanks to Shankar Acharya (@5hank4r) for responsibly reporting the identified issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | getkirby/cms | all versions | 3.5.8.3composer require getkirby/cms:^3.5.8.3 |
| 🐘Packagist | getkirby/cms | ≥ 3.6.0&&< 3.6.6.3 | 3.6.6.3composer require getkirby/cms:^3.6.6.3 |
| 🐘Packagist | getkirby/cms | ≥ 3.7.0&&< 3.7.5.2 | 3.7.5.2composer require getkirby/cms:^3.7.5.2 |
| 🐘Packagist | getkirby/cms | ≥ 3.8.0&&< 3.8.4.1 | 3.8.4.1composer require getkirby/cms:^3.8.4.1 |
| 🐘Packagist | getkirby/cms | ≥ 3.9.0&&< 3.9.6 | 3.9.6composer require getkirby/cms:^3.9.6 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for getkirby/cms, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update getkirby/cms to 3.5.8.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-38491 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-2023-38491 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-38491. 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-2023-38491 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-38491 across Packagist dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.