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Mallory
HighPublic exploit

Authenticated RCE via unrestricted .phar upload in Dotclear 2.25.3

IdentifiersCVE-2023-53952CWE-434· Unrestricted Upload of File with…

Dotclear 2.25.3 is vulnerable to remote code execution due to an unrestricted file upload condition in the blog post creation interface. An authenticated attacker can upload a malicious file with a .phar extension containing PHP code (e.g., invoking system commands). When the uploaded file is subsequently accessed, the server executes the embedded PHP, resulting in arbitrary code execution in the context of the web server/PHP runtime.

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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.

Successful exploitation enables arbitrary code execution on the Dotclear server, with high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability (e.g., command execution, data theft/modification, service disruption), limited by the privileges of the web server/PHP process.

Mitigation

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

Restrict and validate uploadable file types and enforce server-side content checks; prevent execution of uploaded content by configuring the web server/PHP to disallow script execution in upload directories; monitor for and alert on creation/access of suspicious uploaded files (notably .phar) and anomalous requests to uploaded paths.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade Dotclear from 2.25.3 to a patched release provided by the vendor and apply any relevant security patches. After patching, review the upload directories for unexpected .phar (or other executable) artifacts and remove any malicious files that may have been uploaded prior to remediation.
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
DotclearDotclearapplication

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

What this page doesn’t show

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Exposure mapping

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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 activity4

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