# CVE-2023-46744: Stored Cross-site Scripting in Squidex

> Authenticated users can upload malicious SVGs to execute arbitrary JavaScript, leading to privilege escalation in Squidex.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 7 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 4 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-g57h-gw9r-cw26, GHSA-xfr4-qg2v-7v5m

## What is CVE-2023-46744?

CVE-2023-46744 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in squidex, published on 7 Nov 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Squidex is an open source headless CMS and content management hub. In affected versions a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability enables privilege escalation of authenticated users. The SVG element filtering mechanism intended to stop XSS attacks through uploaded SVG images, is insufficient resulting to stored XSS attacks. Squidex allows the CMS contributors to be granted the permission of uploading an SVG asset. When the asset is uploaded, a filtering mechanism is performed to validate that the SVG does not contain malicious code. The validation logic consists of traversing the HTML nodes in the DOM. In order for the validation to succeed, 2 conditions must be met: 1. No HTML tags included in a "blacklist" called "InvalidSvgElements" are present. This list only contains the element "script". and 2. No attributes of HTML tags begin with "on" (i.e. onerror, onclick) (line 65). If either of the 2 conditions is not satisfied, validation fails and the file/asset is not uploaded. However it is possible to bypass the above filtering mechanism and execute arbitrary JavaScript code by introducing other HTML elements such as an <iframe> element with a "src" attribute containing a "javascript:" value. Authenticated adversaries with the "assets.create" permission, can leverage this vulnerability to upload a malicious SVG as an asset, targeting any registered user that will attempt to open/view the asset through the Squidex CMS.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-46744?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Squidex.io Squidex.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-46744?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-46744 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-46744 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-46744 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in squidex

- [CVE-2026-24736](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24736/): Squidex has Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Issue in Webhook Configuration (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2023-46253](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46253/): Remote code execution in Squidex (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2023-46252](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46252/): Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) via postMessage Handler in Squidex (medium 6.8)
- [CVE-2023-0642](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-0642/): Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) in squidex/squidex (medium 6.8)
- [CVE-2023-24278](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-24278/): Cross-site scripting in n/a (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-46744 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-46744 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in squidex, published on 7 Nov 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-46744 exists.

Affected product: squidex. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46744/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46744/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-46744
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-46744
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-46744

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-46744/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.