CVE-2023-38491

mediumpriority · track · 22EPSS 0.006 · 49 %ileEUUS
grimoire priorityP3 · Track
Exploitable?
—
no known exploitation
Likely / severe?
0.62% (49th) EPSS
CVSS 5.4 · medium
Is it mine?
15 products
Check your exposure
Who says so?
4 sources
cnnvd · enisa_euvd · nvd · osv

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

Kirby is a content management system. A vulnerability in versions prior to 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, and 3.9.6 affects all Kirby sites that might have potential attackers in the group of authenticated Panel users or that allow external visitors to upload an arbitrary file to the content folder. Kirby sites are not affected if they don't allow file uploads for untrusted users or visitors or if the file extensions of uploaded files are limited to a fixed safe list. The attack requires user interaction by another user or visitor and cannot be automated. An editor with write access to the Kirby Panel could upload a file with an unknown file extension like `.xyz` that contains HTML code including harmful content like `<script>` tags. The direct link to that file could be sent to other users or visitors of the site. If the victim opened that link in a browser where they are logged in to Kirby and the file had not been opened by anyone since the upload, Kirby would not be able to send the correct MIME content type, instead falling back to `text/html`. The browser would then run the script, which could for example trigger requests to Kirby's API with the permissions of the victim. The issue was caused by the underlying `Kirby\Http\Response::file()` method, which didn't have an explicit fallback if the MIME type could not be determined from the file extension. If you use this method in site or plugin code, these uses may be affected by the same vulnerability. The problem has been patched in Kirby 3.5.8.3, 3.6.6.3, 3.7.5.2, 3.8.4.1, and 3.9.6. In all of the mentioned releases, the maintainers have fixed the affected method to use a fallback MIME type of `text/plain` and set the `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff` header if the MIME type of the file is unknown.

01

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

5.7
010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode

v3.15.4mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:Nprimary · NVD / NIST USexploitability 2.3 · impact 2.7
v3.15.7mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · ENISA EU
v3.15.7mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · security-advisories@github.comexploitability 2.1 · impact 3.6
v3.15.7mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nsecondary · OSV
v3.15mediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N/E:Usecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)
02

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Trackcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS
03

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

04

affected products (15)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

05

advisories (1)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

  • GHSA-8fv7-wq38-f5c9Cross-site scripting (XSS) from MIME type auto-detection of uploaded files2023-07-28ghsa · osvUS

    ### TL;DR This vulnerability affects all Kirby sites that might have potential attackers in the group of authenticated Panel users or that allow external visitors to upload an arbitrary file to the content folder. Your Kirby sites are *not* affected if they don't allow file uploads for untrusted users or visitors or if the file extensions of uploaded files are limited to a fixed safe list. The attack requires user interaction by another user or visitor and *cannot* be automated. ---- ### Introduction Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of vulnerability that allows to execute any kind of JavaScript code inside the Panel session of the same or other users. In the Panel, a harmful script can for example trigger requests to Kirby's API with the permissions of the victim. Such vulnerabilities are critical if you might have potential attackers in your group of authenticated Panel users. They can escalate their privileges if they get access to the Panel session of an admin user. Depending on your site, other JavaScript-powered attacks are possible. ### Impact An editor with write access to the Kirby Panel could upload a file with an unknown file extension like `.xyz` that contains HTML code including harmful content like `<script>` tags. The direct link to that file could be sent to other users or visitors of the site. If the victim opened that link in a browser where they are logged in to Kirby and the file had not been opened by anyone since the upload, Kirby would serve the file with an incorrect MIME type of `text/html`. The browser would then run the script, which could for example trigger requests to Kirby's API with the permissions of the victim. The issue was caused by the underlying `Kirby\Http\Response::file()` method, which didn't have an explicit fallback if the MIME type could not be determined from the file extension. If you use this method in site or plugin code, these uses may be affected by the same vulnerability. ### Patches The problem has been patched in [Kirby 3.5.8.3](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.5.8.3), [Kirby 3.6.6.3](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.6.6.3), [Kirby 3.7.5.2](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.7.5.2), [Kirby 3.8.4.1](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.8.4.1) and [Kirby 3.9.6](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases/tag/3.9.6). Please update to one of these or a [later version](https://github.com/getkirby/kirby/releases) to fix the vulnerability. In all of the mentioned releases, we have fixed the affected method to use a fallback MIME type of `text/plain` and set the `X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff` header if the MIME type of the file is unknown. ### Credits Thanks to Shankar Acharya (@5hank4r) for responsibly reporting the identified issue.

06

also known as (3)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

07

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

published 2023-07-27modified 2026-06-17
08

references (22)

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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