CVE-2023-22456
Publication date 3 January 2023
Last updated 4 August 2025
Ubuntu priority
Cvss 3 Severity Score
Description
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.)
Status
| Package | Ubuntu Release | Status |
|---|---|---|
| viewvc | ||
| 22.04 LTS jammy | Not in release | |
| 20.04 LTS focal | Not in release | |
| 18.04 LTS bionic |
Needs evaluation
|
|
| 16.04 LTS xenial |
Needs evaluation
|
|
| 14.04 LTS trusty | Ignored end of standard support |
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score |
|
| Attack vector | Network |
| Attack complexity | Low |
| Privileges required | None |
| User interaction | Required |
| Scope | Changed |
| Confidentiality | Low |
| Integrity impact | Low |
| Availability impact | None |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N |
References
Other references
- https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/security/advisories/GHSA-j4mx-f97j-gc5g
- https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/commit/2d57d713aa9b64558a9ba3ea187866ce98564c0a (1.1.29)
- https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/releases/tag/1.2.2
- https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/issues/311
- https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/releases/tag/1.1.29
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-22456