# CVE-2023-48240: xwiki-platform-diff — Fixed in 14.10.15

☕

☕ Maven

Not in CISA KEV

CRITICAL severity

# CVE-2023-48240 — xwiki-platform-diff-xml

CRITICAL [Fix: xwiki/xwiki-platform@bff0203](https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/bff0203e739b6e3eb90af5736f04278c73c2a8bb)

CVE-2023-48240 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9) CWE-201 vulnerability in org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml. A fix is available for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml — see the affected versions and patch details below.

XWiki Platform sends cookies to external images in rendered diff and is vulnerable to server side request forgery

Also known as[GHSA-7rfg-6273-f5wp](/vulnerability/GHSA-7rfg-6273-f5wp)

Published

Nov 20, 2023

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

3 pkgs

Patched

3 / 3

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 5, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

## EPSS Exploitation Probability

[via FIRST.org ↗](https://www.first.org/epss/)

0.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs54th percentile — riskier than 54% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

0.21%0.83%1.46%2.08%1.6%0.7%May 26Sep 26Nov 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from [FIRST.org EPSS](https://www.first.org/epss/).

## How urgent is this, really

## Where this sits among everything scored

## Real-World Exposure

3 pkgs affected

☕`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml`☕`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml`☕`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml`

Real-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 rendered diff in XWiki embeds images to be able to compare the contents and not display a difference for an actually unchanged image. For this, XWiki requests all embedded images on the server side. These requests are also sent for images from other domains and include all cookies that were sent in the original request to ensure that images with restricted view right can be compared. This allows an attacker to steal login and session cookies that allow impersonating the current user who views the diff. The attack can be triggered with an image that references the rendered diff, thus making it easy to trigger.

More concretely, to reproduce, add 101 different images with references to the attacker's server. In any place add an image with a reference to `/xwiki/bin/view/Image%20Cookie%20Test/?xpage=changes&rev1=1.1&rev2=2.1&include=renderedChanges` where `Image%20Cookie%20Test` needs to be replaced by the path to the document with the images and the two revisions should match the revision before/after adding the images. Whenever a user views that image, the user's login cookies should be sent to the attacker's server. The 101 images are to circumvent the cache that has a default maximum size of 100 entries.

Apart from stealing login cookies, this also allows server-side request forgery (the result of any successful request is returned in the image's source) and viewing protected content as once a resource is cached, it is returned for all users. As only successful requests are cached, the cache will be filled by the first user who is allowed to access the resource.

#### Patches

This has been patched in XWiki 14.10.15, 15.5.1 and 15.6. The rendered diff now only downloads images from trusted domains. Further, cookies are only sent when the image's domain is the same the requested domain. The cache has been changed to be specific for each user.

#### Workarounds

As a workaround, the image embedding feature can be disabled by deleting `xwiki-platform-diff-xml-<version>.jar` in `WEB-INF/lib/`.

#### References

-   [https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-20818](https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-20818)
-   [https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/bff0203e739b6e3eb90af5736f04278c73c2a8bb](https://github.com/xwiki/xwiki-platform/commit/bff0203e739b6e3eb90af5736f04278c73c2a8bb)

## Affected Packages

3 total 3 fixed

Ecosystem

Package

Vulnerable range

Fix

☕Maven

`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml` 

≥ 11.10.1&&< 14.10.15

14.10.15`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml:14.10.15`

☕Maven

`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml` 

≥ 15.0-rc-1&&< 15.5.1

15.5.1`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml:15.5.1`

☕Maven

`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml` 

≥ 15.6-rc-1&&< 15.6

15.6`org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml:15.6`

## Affected Products

1 product · 3 configurations

Application

`xwiki`xwiki

≥ 15.0 && < 15.5.1

1 version

15.6

## Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

1.  ### Detect
    
    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
    
2.  ### Fix
    
    Update org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-diff-xml to 14.10.15 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-48240 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
    
3.  ### Workarounds
    
    Restrict outbound requests from the affected component to an allowlist of hosts, block access to link-local and internal address ranges at the network layer, and require authentication on internal services so a forged request cannot reach them unauthenticated.
    

## Frequently Asked Questions

\### Impact The rendered diff in XWiki embeds images to be able to compare the contents and not display a difference for an actually unchanged image. For this, XWiki requests all embedded images on the server side. These requests are also sent for images from other domains and include all cookies that were sent in the original request to ensure that images with restricted view right can be compared. This allows an attacker to steal login and session cookies that allow impersonating the current user who views the diff. The attack can be triggered with an image that references the rendered diff,

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

### Is CVE-2023-48240 in your dependencies?

Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.

[Scan my dependencies](/book-demo) [How O3 SCA works](/impact-aware-sca)