CVE-2023-38693

Lucee RCE/XXE Vulnerability

The Lucee team received a responsible disclosure of a security vulnerability which affects all previous releases of Lucee.

After reviewing the report and confirming the vulnerability, the Lucee team then conducted a further security review and found additional vulnerabilities which have been addressed as part of this this security update.

An XML parser processes external entity references in untrusted input, causing the server to fetch internal resources or remote URLs. Typical impact: local file disclosure, server-side request forgery, or denial of service.

CVE-2023-38693 has a CVSS score of 10.0 (Critical). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. 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 (5.3.12.1, 5.4.3.2, 5.3.8.236, 5.3.9.173); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

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Lucee 5.4.3.2 and 5.3.12.1 stable releases have been patched with additional hardening

The older releases, 5.3.7.59., 5.3.8.236 and 5.3.9.173 have also been patched

Any users running older release, should plan to immediately upgrade to the latest stable release

6.0 will have a RC as it's not yet released

1. What is CVE-2023-38693? CVE-2023-38693 is a critical-severity XML external entity injection (XXE) vulnerability in org.lucee:lucee (maven), affecting versions >= 5.3.10.79-RC, < 5.3.12.1. It is fixed in 5.3.12.1, 5.4.3.2, 5.3.8.236, 5.3.9.173. An XML parser processes external entity references in untrusted input, causing the server to fetch internal resources or remote URLs.
2. How severe is CVE-2023-38693? CVE-2023-38693 has a CVSS score of 10.0 (Critical). 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 org.lucee:lucee are affected by CVE-2023-38693? org.lucee:lucee (maven) versions >= 5.3.10.79-RC, < 5.3.12.1 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2023-38693? Yes. CVE-2023-38693 is fixed in 5.3.12.1, 5.4.3.2, 5.3.8.236, 5.3.9.173. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2023-38693 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2023-38693 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-2023-38693 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-2023-38693?
   • Upgrade org.lucee:lucee to 5.3.12.1 or later
   • Upgrade org.lucee:lucee to 5.4.3.2 or later
   • Upgrade org.lucee:lucee to 5.3.8.236 or later
   • Upgrade org.lucee:lucee to 5.3.9.173 or later