Skip to main content
Live Webinar with SANS (June 25)— Agentic CTI Automation for Fun & ProfitRegister Free
Mallory
Medium

Reflected XSS in Adobe ColdFusion (2023.5/2021.11 and earlier)

IdentifiersCVE-2023-44352CWE-79· Improper Neutralization of Input…

Adobe ColdFusion versions 2023.5 and earlier and 2021.11 and earlier contain a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker can craft a URL referencing a vulnerable ColdFusion page such that attacker-supplied input is reflected into the HTTP response without proper output encoding, resulting in execution of arbitrary JavaScript in the victim’s browser within the security context of the affected application origin.

Share:
For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

Mallory correlates every CVE against your assets, your vendors, and active adversary campaigns. Know which vulnerabilities matter for you, not just which ones are loud.

ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

If exploited, arbitrary JavaScript can execute in the victim’s browser in the context of the vulnerable ColdFusion application, enabling actions such as session/token theft, account takeover via session riding, UI redress/phishing within the trusted origin, and exfiltration of data accessible to the victim in that origin.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Apply the latest ColdFusion updates (2023 Update 6 / 2021 Update 12) and keep the JDK/JRE current. Where feasible, reduce exposure of ColdFusion endpoints to untrusted users, and implement compensating controls such as a WAF rule set to detect/strip common reflected-XSS vectors and strict response security headers (e.g., CSP) to limit script execution impact.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion 2023 Update 6 or later and/or Adobe ColdFusion 2021 Update 12 or later (per Adobe APSB23-52). Also ensure the underlying JDK/JRE is updated to the latest supported version and apply Adobe’s recommended security configurations/lockdown guidance.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
AdobeColdfusionapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity2

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.