ViewVC XSS vulnerability in revision view changed paths
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Cross-site scripting
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-79.
Summary
ViewVC, a browser interface for CVS and Subversion version control repositories, as a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affects versions prior to 1.2.2 and 1.1.29. The impact of this vulnerability is mitigated by the need for an attacker to have commit privileges to a Subversion repository exposed by an otherwise trusted ViewVC instance. The attack vector involves files with unsafe names (names that, when embedded into an HTML stream, would cause the browser to run unwanted code), which themselves can be challenging to create. Users should update to at least version 1.2.2 (if they are using a 1.2.x version of ViewVC) or 1.1.29 (if they are using a 1.1.x version). ViewVC 1.0.x is no longer supported, so users of that release lineage should implement a workaround. Users can edit their ViewVC EZT view templates to manually HTML-escape changed paths during rendering. Locate in your template set's `revision.ezt` file references to those changed paths, and wrap them with `[format "html"]` and `[end]`. For most users, that means that references to `[changes.path]` will become `[format "html"][changes.path][end]`. (This workaround should be reverted after upgrading to a patched version of ViewVC, else changed path names will be doubly escaped.)
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA viewvc (viewvc) Fixed in 1.1.29, 1.2.2
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-22456
References
More Viewvc vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-33984 ViewVC's standalone server exposes arbitrary server filesystem content CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2023-08713 ViewVC XSS vulnerability in revision view changed path "copyfrom" locations CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.4
- TI-2010-00005 query.py in the query interface in ViewVC before 1.1.3 does not reject configurations… CVSS 2.0HIGH 7.5
- TI-2007-05516 viewvc 1.0.3 allows improper access control to files in a repository when using the "forbidden" configuration option. CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2006-05254 ViewVC 1.0.2 and earlier does not specify a charset in its HTTP headers or HTML… CVSS 2.0MEDIUM 6.8
- TI-2017-03857 Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the nav_path function in lib/viewvc.py in… CVSS 3.0MEDIUM 6.1
Sources
- CVE-2023-22456 · CVE Program
- CVE-2023-22456 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- CVE-2023-22456 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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