CVE-2023-49943VulnerabilityPublished 18 Jan 2024Updated 2 Jun 2025

CVE-2023-49943: n/a

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.4 Medium · fixed in 14504 : update affected systems when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.4Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 1.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 77% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 14504

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 18 Jan 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
n/a n/a	Affected <14504	Fixed in 14504

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2023-49943 effectively, European organizations should take the following specific actions: 1) Immediately verify the current version of Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus MSP in use and plan to upgrade to build 14504 or later once the vendor releases a patch addressing this vulnerability. 2) Until a patch is applied, restrict the ability of low-privileged technicians to create or modify task names or implement strict input validation and sanitization at the application or proxy level to block malicious scripts. 3) Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the execution of unauthorized scripts in the browser context, reducing the impact of any injected XSS payloads. 4) Conduct user awareness training for technicians and service desk users to recognize suspicious inputs or behaviors and report anomalies promptly. 5) Monitor application logs and user activities for unusual task name changes or script injection attempts. 6) Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules targeting stored XSS patterns specific to ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus MSP. 7) Review and tighten role-based access controls to minimize unnecessary privileges for technicians and other users. 8) Regularly audit and test the application for XSS and other injection vulnerabilities as part of the security program. These targeted measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on immediate containment, access control, and layered defenses until the official patch is deployed.

Description

Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus MSP before 14504 allows stored XSS (by a low-privileged technician) via a task's name in a time sheet.

Impact

For European organizations using Zoho ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus MSP, this vulnerability poses a risk of unauthorized access and data compromise within their IT service management environment. Since the vulnerability allows a low-privileged technician to inject scripts that execute in the browsers of other users, it can lead to session hijacking, theft of sensitive information, or unauthorized actions performed with the privileges of the victim user. This can undermine the confidentiality and integrity of service desk operations, potentially exposing sensitive customer or internal data. The impact is particularly significant in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors in Europe, where data protection and service availability are critical. Additionally, the scope change in the CVSS vector suggests that the vulnerability could affect multiple components or user roles, increasing the risk of lateral movement or privilege escalation within the application. Although no availability impact is indicated, the breach of confidentiality and integrity can disrupt business processes and damage organizational reputation. The requirement for user interaction (viewing the malicious task name) means that social engineering or internal awareness is a factor, but the low privilege needed to inject the payload lowers the barrier to exploitation. Overall, this vulnerability can facilitate targeted attacks against European organizations relying on this software for IT service management, especially those with multiple technicians and users accessing the platform regularly.

CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #1OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation · Architecture and Design
Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages.
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
DOM based XSS Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch (opens in a new tab)
DOM-Based XSS (opens in a new tab)
Reflected XSS (opens in a new tab)
Stored XSS (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Jul 2025, 17:41 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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