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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2023-49093 json

HtmlUnit vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) via XSTL

published 2023-12-04 2 y ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also GHSA-37vq-hr2f-g7h7 , EUVD-2023-3079

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.4%
EPSS 2.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 83%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

HtmlUnit is a GUI-less browser for Java programs. HtmlUnit is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) via XSTL, when browsing the attacker’s webpage. This vulnerability has been patched in version 3.9.0

Patch / fix

  • maven org.htmlunit:htmlunit 3.9.0
  • htmlunit htmlunit 3.9.0
  • htmlunit Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.8-1ubuntu2.1+esm1
  • htmlunit Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 2.8-3ubuntu1+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-49093

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-49093 updated cvss 8.8

htmlunit: Feature for secure processing disabled in the XSLT processor

  • Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 6 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Runtimes net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Fuse 7 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6 org.keycloak-keycloak-parent org.keycloak-keycloak-parent, net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6 htmlUnit htmlUnit
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Build of Keycloak net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat build of Quarkus net.sourceforge.htmlunit/htmlunit net.sourceforge.htmlunit/htmlunit Red Hat Data Grid 8 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat Decision Manager 7 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat Integration Camel K 1 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 2 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar
    +7 more products
    Red Hat JBoss Data Grid 7 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7 htmlunit Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8 htmlunit Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Expansion Pack net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat Process Automation 7 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat Single Sign-On 7 net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar Red Hat streams for Apache Kafka net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar net.sourceforge.htmlunit-htmlunit-jar
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

2.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 83% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/HtmlUnit/htmlunit/security/advisories/GHSA-37vq-hr2f-g7h7 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
GitHub 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
maven org.htmlunit:htmlunit
<3.9.0
3.9.0

Affected products

  • HtmlUnit htmlunit

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.