CVE-2023-36809

Kiwi TCMS's misconfigured HTTP headers allow stored XSS execution with Firefox

References

Disclosed by M Nadeem Qazi and
Mahshooq Zubair.

Kiwi TCMS allows users to upload attachments to test plans, test cases, etc. Earlier versions of Kiwi TCMS had introduced
changes which were meant to serve all uploaded files as plain text in order to prevent browsers from executing potentially dangerous files when such files are accessed directly!

The previous Nginx configuration was incorrect allowing certain browsers like Firefox to ignore the Content-Type: text/plain header on some occasions thus allowing potentially dangerous scripts to be executed.

Additionally file upload validators and parts of the HTML rendering code have been found to require additional sanitation and improvements.

Untrusted input is rendered as active markup in a victim's browser, which can run script in their session. Typical impact: session or credential theft, and actions taken as the user.

CVE-2023-36809 has a CVSS score of 8.1 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (12.5); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

Already deployed Kodem?

• Updated Nginx content type configuration
• Improved file upload validation code to prevent more potentially dangerous uploads
• Sanitization of test plan names used in the tree_view_html() function

1. What is CVE-2023-36809? CVE-2023-36809 is a high-severity cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in kiwitcms (pip), affecting versions < 12.5. It is fixed in 12.5. Untrusted input is rendered as active markup in a victim's browser, which can run script in their session.
2. How severe is CVE-2023-36809? CVE-2023-36809 has a CVSS score of 8.1 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of kiwitcms are affected by CVE-2023-36809? kiwitcms (pip) versions < 12.5 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2023-36809? Yes. CVE-2023-36809 is fixed in 12.5. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2023-36809 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2023-36809 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2023-36809 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2023-36809? Upgrade kiwitcms to 12.5 or later.

Other vulnerabilities in kiwitcms