CVE-2023-32315: Ignite Realtime Openfire Path Traversal Vulnerability

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-32315 is a high (CVSS 8.6) Path Traversal vulnerability in Ignite Realtime Openfire. It is known to be exploited: CISA lists it, first on 24-08-2023. EPSS estimates a 100.00% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of scored vulnerabilities. 3 public exploits are recorded.

Timeline

1. 26-05-2023
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 24-08-2023
   Added to CISA KEVIgnite Realtime Openfire Path Traversal Vulnerability
3. 14-09-2023
   CISA remediation dueApply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
4. 21-10-2025
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Openfire is an XMPP server licensed under the Open Source Apache License. Openfire's administrative console, a web-based application, was found to be vulnerable to a path traversal attack via the setup environment. This permitted an unauthenticated user to use the unauthenticated Openfire Setup Environment in an already configured Openfire environment to access restricted pages in the Openfire Admin Console reserved for administrative users. This vulnerability affects all versions of Openfire that have been released since April 2015, starting with version 3.10.0. The problem has been patched in Openfire release 4.7.5 and 4.6.8, and further improvements will be included in the yet-to-be released first version on the 4.8 branch (which is expected to be version 4.8.0). Users are advised to upgrade. If an Openfire upgrade isn’t available for a specific release, or isn’t quickly actionable, users may see the linked github advisory (GHSA-gw42-f939-fhvm) for mitigation advice.

• CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.