Critical

XWiki Platform Mentions UI vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting

  • Disclosed: 16.09.2022
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 11:21

Impact

It's possible to store Javascript or groovy scripts in an mention macro anchor or reference field. The stored code is executed by anyone visiting the page with the mention.

For example, the example below will create a file at /tmp/exploit.txt:

{{mention reference="XWiki.Translation" anchor="{{/html~}~}{{async async=~"true~" cached=~"false~" context=~"doc.reference~"~}~}{{groovy~}~}new File(~"/tmp/exploit.txt~").withWriter { out -> out.println(~"owned!~"); }{{/groovy~}~}{{/async~}~}"/}}

Patches

This issue has been patched on XWiki 14.4 and 13.10.6.

Workarounds

It's possible to fix the vulnerability by updating XWiki.Mentions.MentionsMacro and edit the Macro code field of the XWiki.WikiMacroClass XObject.

velocity
<a id="$anchor" class="$stringtool.join($cssClasses, ' ')" data-reference="$services.model.serialize($reference.reference, 'default')" href="$link">$content</a>

Must be replaced by

velocity
<a id="$escapetool.xml($anchor)" class="$stringtool.join($cssClasses, ' ')" data-reference="$escapetool.xml($services.model.serialize($reference.reference, 'default'))" href="$escapetool.xml($link)">
  $escapetool.xml($content)
</a>

See the patches:

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Java / Kotlin (Maven) org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-mentions-ui >= 12.5-rc-1, < 13.10.6, >= 14.0, < 14.4 13.10.6, 14.4

References

CVSS score 9.9/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-79
Platform
Java / Kotlin (Maven)
Package
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-mentions-ui
Disclosed
16.09.2022
Updated
11.10.2026 11:21

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-c5v8-2q4r-5w9v - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-mentions-ui

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Java / Kotlin (Maven)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

This is the only known vulnerability of this package.

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