CVE-2024-31996: XWiki Commons missing escaping of `{` in Velocity escapetool allows remote code execution

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 2.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2024-04-10 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-95

Description

XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform. Starting in version 3.0.1 and prior to versions 4.10.19, 15.5.4, and 15.10-rc-1, the HTML escaping of escaping tool that is used in XWiki doesn't escape `{`, which, when used in certain places, allows XWiki syntax injection and thereby remote code execution. The vulnerability has been fixed in XWiki 14.10.19, 15.5.5, and 15.9 RC1. Apart from upgrading, there is no generic workaround. However, replacing `$escapetool.html` by `$escapetool.xml` in XWiki documents fixes the vulnerability. In a standard XWiki installation, the maintainers are only aware of the document `Panels.PanelLayoutUpdate` that exposes this vulnerability, patching this document is thus a workaround. Any extension could expose this vulnerability and might thus require patching, too.

Affected products

xwiki-platform: from 3.0.1 before 14.10.19; from 15.0 before 15.5.4; from 15.6 before 15.9 — fixed in 14.10.19, 15.5.4, 15.9

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: xwiki-platform 14.10.19, 15.5.4, 15.9. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2024-31996 or the next vulnerability affects your stack