VulnerabilityPublished 8 Jan 2024Updated 3 Jun 2025

CVE-2023-50982: Stud.IP · Cross-site Scripting

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.0 Critical.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

9.0Critical

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

EPSS: 1.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 69% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Vector: Network
Availability: High
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Privileges Required: Low
Scope: Changed
User Interaction: Required

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

Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
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).
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted 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.
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.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 8 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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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
GitHubstudip/studip`pkg:github/studip/studip`Other threats	Affected >=5.0.0 <=5.0.8 >=5.1.0 <=5.1.6 >=5.2.0 <=5.2.5 >=5.3.0 <=5.3.3	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Immediate upgrade to the fixed versions of Stud.IP (5.3.4, 5.2.6, 5.1.7, or 5.0.9) is the most effective mitigation.
Implement strict file upload validation controls, including whitelisting allowed file types and verifying file extensions and MIME types on both client and server sides.
Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block suspicious file uploads and XSS payloads targeting the Admin_SmileysController endpoints.
Restrict administrative access to the upload and edit functionalities to trusted users only, and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for admin accounts to reduce the risk of credential compromise.
Monitor logs for unusual file upload activities or execution of unexpected processes under the www-data user.
Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing focusing on file upload functionalities.
Educate administrators on phishing and social engineering risks that could lead to exploitation via user interaction.
If immediate patching is not possible, consider temporarily disabling the smiley upload/edit features or restricting them via network segmentation or access control lists.

Description

Stud.IP 5.x through 5.3.3 allows XSS with resultant upload of executable files, because upload_action and edit_action in Admin_SmileysController do not check the file extension. This leads to remote code execution with the privileges of the www-data user. The fixed versions are 5.3.4, 5.2.6, 5.1.7, and 5.0.9.

Impact

For European organizations using Stud.IP, an open-source learning management system popular in academic institutions, this vulnerability poses a severe risk. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on servers hosting Stud.IP, potentially leading to data breaches, unauthorized access to sensitive academic and personal data, disruption of educational services, and lateral movement within institutional networks. Given that Stud.IP is widely used in universities and educational institutions across Europe, the impact could extend to critical educational infrastructure, affecting confidentiality, integrity, and availability of educational resources and user data. Additionally, compromised servers could be leveraged as footholds for further attacks against connected networks or used to distribute malware. The requirement for user interaction (likely an admin uploading files) means insider threats or phishing campaigns targeting administrators could facilitate exploitation. The vulnerability's ability to escalate from XSS to RCE significantly increases the threat level, making timely patching essential to prevent potential widespread impact.

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 4 Jul 2025, 02:13 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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