CVE-2025-48063 in xwiki-platform
Summary
by MITRE • 05/21/2025
XWiki is a generic wiki platform. In XWiki 16.10.0, required rights were introduced as a way to limit which rights a document can have. Part of the security model of required rights is that a user who doesn't have a right also cannot define that right as required right. That way, users who are editing documents on which required rights are enforced can be sure that they're not giving a right to a script or object that it didn't have before. A bug in the implementation of the enforcement of this rule means that in fact, it was possible for any user with edit right on a document to set programming right as required right. If then a user with programming right edited that document, the content of that document would gain programming right, allowing remote code execution. This thereby defeats most of the security benefits of required rights. As XWiki still performs the required rights analysis when a user edits a page even when required rights are enforced, the user with programming right would still be warned about the dangerous content unless the attacker managed to bypass this check. Note also that none of the affected versions include a UI for enabling the enforcing of required rights so it seems unlikely that anybody relied on them for security in the affected versions. As this vulnerability provides no additional attack surface unless all documents in the wiki enforce required rights, we consider the impact of this attack to be low even though gaining programming right could have a high impact. This vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 16.10.4 and 17.1.0RC1. No known workarounds are available except for upgrading.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/21/2025
The vulnerability CVE-2025-48063 affects XWiki version 16.10.0 and represents a critical flaw in the platform's security model implementation. XWiki implements required rights as a mechanism to control document permissions and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive capabilities. The intended security model prevents users without specific rights from defining those rights as required, thereby ensuring that scripts or objects cannot gain unauthorized capabilities during document editing. This design aligns with security principles that aim to minimize privilege escalation opportunities and maintain least privilege access controls.
The technical flaw lies in the enforcement mechanism of required rights, where the implementation incorrectly allows any user with edit rights on a document to set programming rights as required rights. This represents a fundamental breakdown in access control validation, as the system fails to properly verify that users possess the necessary privileges before allowing them to define required rights. The vulnerability specifically targets the authorization checks during document editing operations, creating a path for privilege escalation that bypasses the intended security boundaries.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant despite its limited attack surface. An attacker with edit rights on a document can manipulate the required rights configuration to grant programming rights, which then allows them to execute arbitrary code within the document context. This remote code execution capability undermines the core security model of required rights and can lead to complete system compromise. The vulnerability's effectiveness depends on all documents in the wiki enforcing required rights, making it a latent threat that requires specific configuration to be exploitable. The fact that no UI exists for enabling required rights enforcement in affected versions suggests that this security feature was likely not actively deployed by users.
The security implications extend beyond simple privilege escalation, as this vulnerability defeats the purpose of required rights as a security control mechanism. The system's design intended to prevent unauthorized rights assignment, but the implementation flaw creates a backdoor that allows any editor to elevate their privileges. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper access control implementation and validation, as highlighted in CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource). The ATT&CK framework would classify this as privilege escalation through access control bypass, with potential lateral movement and persistence capabilities once remote code execution is achieved.
Mitigation efforts must focus on upgrading to patched versions 16.10.4 or 17.1.0RC1, as no effective workarounds exist for this vulnerability. Organizations using XWiki should immediately assess their deployment configurations to determine if required rights enforcement is enabled and consider disabling this feature until proper upgrades are implemented. The vulnerability's low impact rating stems from the requirement that all documents must actively enforce required rights for the exploit to be effective, but the potential for remote code execution makes this a serious concern for any environment where this feature is deployed. Security teams should monitor for any signs of exploitation attempts and implement additional monitoring for unusual document editing activities that might indicate attempts to manipulate required rights configurations.