How severe is CVE-2023-45815?

CVE-2023-45815 has a CVSS score of 6.4/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2023-45815?

CVE-2023-45815 affects the following packages: archivebox (PyPI). Ecosystems affected: PyPI.

How do I fix CVE-2023-45815?

Update archivebox to 0.9.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-45815 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2023-45815 in my PyPI dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for archivebox, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2023-45815 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.

Is CVE-2023-45815 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2023-45815, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2023-45815?

CVE-2023-45815 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.8%, placing it in the 57th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2023-45815?

CVE-2023-45815 is classified as Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation. This is a high-impact weakness class that often enables remote code execution or data exposure.

When was CVE-2023-45815 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2023-45815 was published on October 19, 2023 and was last updated on October 28, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐍

🐍 PyPI

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-45815 — archivebox

MEDIUMFix: ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox@a6548df

CVE-2023-45815 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.4) Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in archivebox. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for archivebox — see the affected versions and patch details below.

ArchiveBox: Viewing wget extractor output while logged in as an admin allows archived JS to execute in the admins context

Also known asGHSA-cr45-98w9-gwqxPYSEC-2023-229

Published

Oct 19, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Nov 3, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-2023-45815.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.8%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs57th percentile — riskier than 57% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

1 pkg affected

🐍archivebox

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Related issue & discussion:

Impact

Any users who save untrusted URLs and view the content they output.

The impact is potentially severe if you are logged in to the ArchiveBox admin site in the same browser session and view an archived malicious page designed to target your ArchiveBox instance. Malicious JS could potentially act using your logged-in admin credentials and add/remove/modify snapshots, add/remove/modify ArchiveBox users, and generally do anything an admin user could do.

The impact is less severe for non-logged-in users, as malicious JS cannot modify any archives, but it can still read all the other archived content by fetching the snapshot index and iterating through it.

Because all of ArchiveBox's archived content is served from the same host and port as the admin panel with 0 XSS protections, when archived pages are viewed the JS executes in the same context as all the other archived pages (and the admin panel), defeating most of the browser's usual CORS/CSRF security protections and leading to this issue.

Patches

Follow here for progress on mitigating this issue: https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/239

Workarounds

Disable the risky extractors by setting archivebox config --set SAVE_WGET=False SAVE_DOM=False, ensure you are always logged out, or serve only a static HTML version of your archive.

References

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐍PyPI	`archivebox`	all versions	0.9.0`pip install --upgrade 'archivebox==0.9.0'`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

archiveboxarchivebox

≤ 0.6.2

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

ArchiveBox is an open source self-hosted web archiving system. Any users…

github.comNVDOct 2023

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for archivebox, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update archivebox to 0.9.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-45815 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Escape or sanitise the affected output on the server side rather than relying on client-side filtering, and add a Content-Security-Policy that blocks inline script execution so injected markup cannot run even if it reaches the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related issue & discussion: - https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/issues/239 - https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Security-Overview#publishing - https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/wiki/Publishing-Your-Archive#security-concerns ### Impact Any users who save untrusted URLs and view the content they output. The impact is potentially severe if you are logged in to the ArchiveBox admin site in the same browser session and view an archived malicious page designed to target your ArchiveBox instance. Malicious JS could potentially act using your logged-in admin credentials an