Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
OpenCATS 0.9.6 has a stored cross-site scripting flaw in questionnaire answers. An unauthenticated candidate can submit malicious JavaScript that runs later when an authenticated user reviews the submission. Business risk is account misuse, cookie theft, and unauthorized actions in the reviewing user’s session.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate-priority application security issue. It is not confirmed as exploited, but it targets a routine business workflow and can affect authenticated users reviewing candidate submissions.
Technical view
CVE-2023-27293 is CWE-79 in OpenCATS 0.9.6. Input is not properly neutralized during web page generation, allowing JavaScript submitted through questionnaire answers to execute in an authenticated reviewer’s browser. CVSS 3.1 is 6.1, with network access, low complexity, no privileges, and required user interaction.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely where OpenCATS 0.9.6 is deployed and accepts unauthenticated candidate questionnaire submissions that staff review in the web interface.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not state active exploitation, and the CVE is not marked as CISA KEV. Exploitation requires a reviewer to open a malicious candidate submission, so risk concentrates on normal recruiting review workflows.
Researcher notes
Evidence supports stored XSS, not remote code execution. The source bundle names OpenCATS 0.9.6 only and does not provide a confirmed patched version. Avoid expanding affected versions without vendor evidence.
Mitigation direction
- Identify and prioritize OpenCATS 0.9.6 instances.
- Check OpenCATS and Tenable guidance for fixed versions or vendor-recommended mitigations.
- Restrict unauthenticated questionnaire submission paths if they are not business required.
- Ensure questionnaire answers are safely encoded or sanitized before display.
- Review session cookie protections and least-privilege reviewer accounts.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether any deployed OpenCATS instance is version 0.9.6.
- Map questionnaire submission and authenticated review workflows.
- Review recent questionnaire content for suspicious script-like input.
- Check audit logs for unexpected reviewer account actions after candidate reviews.
- Verify any vendor fix or mitigation is applied in staging first.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
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CWE-79: User-session and phishing behavior lookup
Client-side and session-facing weaknesses should be reviewed alongside initial-access and user-execution behaviors. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2023-27293 mapping review
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Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.1 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N2.82.7Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.1MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.tenable.com/security/research/tra-2023-8CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.