CVE-2023-2983 in pimcore
Summary
by MITRE • 05/30/2023
Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions in GitHub repository pimcore/pimcore prior to 10.5.23.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/17/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-2983 affects the pimcore content management platform, specifically within versions prior to 10.5.23. This issue represents a privilege escalation vulnerability where improper privilege definitions allow unauthorized users to perform actions that should be restricted to administrators or users with elevated permissions. The flaw exists in how the system handles user role assignments and permission mappings, creating potential pathways for privilege abuse that could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive system functions.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate validation of user privileges and unsafe action definitions within the permission management system. When users are assigned roles within pimcore, the system fails to properly enforce boundaries between different privilege levels, allowing users with lower privileges to execute operations that require higher administrative permissions. This misconfiguration creates a scenario where malicious actors or compromised accounts could escalate their privileges through carefully crafted requests that exploit the flawed permission checking mechanisms. The vulnerability specifically impacts the repository management and user access control components of the platform, where role-based access controls are not properly enforced.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant for organizations relying on pimcore for content management and digital asset handling. Attackers exploiting this vulnerability could gain unauthorized access to administrative functions, potentially leading to data manipulation, content theft, system compromise, or complete system takeover. The risk is particularly elevated in environments where pimcore is used for managing sensitive corporate data, customer information, or critical digital assets. Organizations may experience unauthorized modifications to content, potential data breaches, and disruption of business operations. The vulnerability also poses risks to compliance requirements, as unauthorized access to privileged functions could violate data protection regulations and security standards.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-2983 should prioritize immediate patching of affected pimcore installations to version 10.5.23 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the privilege escalation issue. Organizations should conduct thorough security assessments of their pimcore implementations to identify any potential exploitation attempts or unauthorized access patterns. Network segmentation and monitoring should be enhanced to detect anomalous privilege usage patterns. Access controls should be reviewed and strengthened to ensure proper role-based access control enforcement. Additionally, organizations should implement comprehensive logging and audit trails for all administrative activities to detect potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 which addresses improper access control, and may map to ATT&CK techniques related to privilege escalation and credential access. Organizations should also consider implementing zero-trust security principles and regularly validate their access control configurations to prevent similar issues from arising in other system components.