8.5

CVSS Score

4.0

-

CVSS Score

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CVE-2025-49580

CVE-2025-49580: XWiki allows privilege escalation through link refactoring

Impact

Pages can gain script or programming rights when they contain a link and the target of the link is renamed or moved. This might lead to execution of scripts contained in xobjects that should have never been executed. This vulnerability affects all version of XWiki since 8.2 and 7.4.5.

Patches

The patch consists in only setting the originalMetadataAuthor when performing such change, so that it's displayed in the history but it has no impact on the right evaluation (i.e. the original author of the changes is still used for right computation).

This patch has been applied on XWiki 16.4.7, 17.1.0RC1, 16.10.4.

Workarounds

There's no workaround for this vulnerability, except preventing to perform any refactoring operation with users having more than edit rights. Administrators are strongly advised to upgrade. If not possible, the patch only impacts module xwiki-platform-refactoring-default so it's possible to apply the commit and rebuild and deploy only that module.

CVSS explanation

Attack vector: Network - Always for XWiki. Complexity: Low - The set of operations to perform the attack is quite easy. Attack requirements: None - Any system is vulnerable, it doesn't depend on specific condition other than user interaction. Privileges required: Low - The attacker only needs edit rights. User interaction: Active - To be successful the attack needs someone with more rights to perform a move/rename of a specific page. Confidentiality: High - The attack might lead to execution of any script. Integrity: High - The attack might lead to execution of any script. Availability: High - The attack might lead to execution of any script. Subsequent system impacts: None for any criteria. Only current system is affected.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Open an issue in Jira XWiki.org
Email us at Security Mailing List

(GitHub Advisory)

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CVE-2025-49580

CVE-2025-49580:

8.5

CVSS Score

4.0

-

CVSS Score

Basic Information

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Technical Details

Package Name	Ecosystem	Vulnerable Versions	First Patched Version
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-refactoring-default	maven	>= 17.0.0-rc-1, < 17.1.0-rc-1	17.1.0-rc-1
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-refactoring-default	maven	>= 16.5.0-rc-1, < 16.10.4	16.10.4
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-refactoring-default	maven	>= 8.2, < 16.4.7	16.4.7
org.xwiki.platform:xwiki-platform-refactoring-default	maven	>= 7.4.5, < 8.0-milestone-1

Technical Details

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Root Cause Analysis

The vulnerability allows for privilege escalation when a user with edit rights creates a page with a script (e.g., in an XObject) and a link, and subsequently, a higher-privileged user (e.g., an admin) renames or moves the target of that link. The refactoring operation, specifically when saving the page whose links were updated, incorrectly set the author of this page to the user performing the refactoring.

The core issue resided in the org.xwiki.refactoring.internal.DefaultReferenceUpdater.saveDocumentPreservingContentAuthor method. Before the patch, this method used document.setAuthorReference(xcontext.getUserReference()); to set the document's author. This action changed the effective author for rights evaluation to the user performing the refactor. If this user had higher privileges than the original content creator, any scripts on the page would then execute with these elevated privileges.

The patch addresses this by renaming saveDocumentPreservingContentAuthor to saveDocumentPreservingAuthors and changing its logic. Instead of setting the main authorReference, it now sets document.getAuthors().setOriginalMetadataAuthor(...). According to the advisory, this originalMetadataAuthor is used for history/auditing purposes and does not affect the rights evaluation for script execution, which continues to use the original content author. The renameLinks function calls this save method and is therefore part of the vulnerable workflow.

During exploitation, a profiler would likely show org.xwiki.refactoring.internal.DefaultReferenceUpdater.update (or updateRelativeLinks), which calls org.xwiki.refactoring.internal.DefaultReferenceUpdater.renameLinks, which in turn (before the patch) called the vulnerable version of org.xwiki.refactoring.internal.DefaultReferenceUpdater.saveDocumentPreservingContentAuthor.

Vulnerable functions

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WAF Protection Rules

WAF Rule

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Reasoning

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8.5

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CVE-2025-49580: XWiki allows privilege escalation through link refactoring

Impact

Patches

Workarounds

CVSS explanation

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CVE-2025-49580:

8.5

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Technical Details

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Root Cause Analysis

Vulnerable functions

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Reasoning

8.5

8.5

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Root Cause Analysis

Vulnerable functions

Technical Details

CVE-2025-49580: XWiki allows privilege escalation through link refactoring

Impact

Patches

Workarounds

CVSS explanation

For more information

Basic Information

Basic Information

Vulnerability Intelligence
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Miggo AI

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