CVE-2024-21651VulnerabilityPublished 8 Jan 2024Updated 3 Jun 2025

CVE-2024-21651: xwiki-platform · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects xwiki-platformSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High · fixed in 15.8-rc1 : patch xwiki-platform soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

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

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 50% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 15.8-rc1, 15.5.3, 14.10.18

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

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

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: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
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).

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 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

Upgrade org.xwiki/xwiki-platform to 15.8-rc1, 15.5.3 or 14.10.18.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Mavenorg.xwiki/xwiki-platform`pkg:maven/org.xwiki/xwiki-platform`Other threats	Affected <14.10.18 <15.5.3 <15.8-rc1	Fixed in 14.10.18 15.5.3 15.8-rc1

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

AI-suggested

1. Immediate patching: Upgrade all affected XWiki Platform instances to the fixed versions 14.10.18, 15.5.3, or 15.8 RC1 or later. This is the most effective mitigation. 2. Restrict file upload permissions: Limit the ability to attach files to trusted users only. Implement strict access controls and review user roles to minimize exposure. 3. File validation and filtering: Implement server-side validation to detect and block suspicious TAR files, especially those with abnormal or manipulated metadata headers. 4. Resource limiting: Configure server and application-level resource limits (CPU, memory, process time) to mitigate the impact of potential resource exhaustion attacks. 5. Monitoring and alerting: Deploy monitoring tools to detect unusual CPU usage spikes or denial of service symptoms related to XWiki processes. Set up alerts for anomalous file upload activities. 6. Network segmentation: Isolate XWiki servers from critical infrastructure to contain potential denial of service impacts. 7. Incident response preparation: Develop and test response plans for denial of service incidents affecting collaboration platforms. 8. Review and update security policies: Ensure that file upload and content parsing policies are aligned with best practices to prevent similar vulnerabilities.

Description

XWiki Platform is a generic wiki platform offering runtime services for applications built on top of it. A user able to attach a file to a page can post a malformed TAR file by manipulating file modification times headers, which when parsed by Tika, could cause a denial of service issue via CPU consumption. This vulnerability has been patched in XWiki 14.10.18, 15.5.3 and 15.8 RC1.

Impact

For European organizations using XWiki Platform, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to service availability. XWiki is popular in various sectors including government, education, and enterprises for internal documentation and knowledge sharing. A successful exploitation could lead to denial of service, causing downtime and loss of productivity. In critical sectors such as public administration or healthcare, where XWiki might be used for operational documentation, this could delay important workflows and impact service delivery. Additionally, the CPU exhaustion caused by the malformed TAR file could degrade server performance, potentially affecting other hosted applications or services on the same infrastructure. Since the vulnerability does not affect confidentiality or integrity, data breaches are unlikely; however, the operational disruption alone can have financial and reputational consequences. European organizations with strict uptime requirements or regulatory obligations for service continuity (e.g., under GDPR or sector-specific regulations) must prioritize remediation. The lack of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially as attackers may develop exploits over time. Organizations with open or loosely controlled file upload permissions are at higher risk, as attackers do not require elevated privileges or user interaction to trigger the vulnerability.

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place.
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or; uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Sustained Client Engagement (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Jul 2025, 23:42 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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