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CVE-2015-8831 Dotclear CVE debrief

CVE-2015-8831 is a cross-site scripting issue in Dotclear affecting versions through 2.8.1. According to NVD, the flaw is in admin/comments.php and can let a remote attacker inject arbitrary web script or HTML through the author name field in a comment. The vulnerable condition was addressed in Dotclear 2.8.2, and NVD assigns CWE-79 with a medium severity score.

Vendor
Dotclear
Product
CVE-2015-8831
CVSS
MEDIUM 6.1
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-02-09
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-02-09
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Dotclear administrators, maintainers, and anyone operating a Dotclear instance at version 2.8.1 or earlier should care. Security teams should also review any workflows that let untrusted comment data reach admin-side pages.

Technical summary

NVD lists the affected CPE as Dotclear versions up to and including 2.8.1. The issue is a web XSS weakness (CWE-79) in admin/comments.php, triggered through the comment author name. The CVSS vector is CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N, indicating network reachability, no privileges required, user interaction required, and limited confidentiality and integrity impact with no availability impact.

Defensive priority

Moderate. The issue is public, has vendor remediation available, and requires user interaction, but it can still enable session compromise, admin action abuse, or content tampering in the affected web interface.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Upgrade Dotclear to 2.8.2 or later as referenced in the vendor release notes.
  • Confirm whether any instances are still running 2.8.1 or earlier and prioritize those for remediation.
  • Review comment and admin-page output handling to ensure untrusted author names are encoded before rendering.
  • Check whether browser-side protections such as a restrictive Content Security Policy are feasible for the deployment.
  • Validate that security monitoring and administrative workflows account for possible XSS in comment management pages.

Evidence notes

Source material ties the vulnerability to Dotclear's admin/comments.php and the comment author name, with a vendor release note for 2.8.2 and a patch/reference trail in multiple advisories. NVD marks the issue as CWE-79 and lists versions through 2.8.1 as vulnerable. The CVE was published in NVD on 2017-02-09; that publication date should not be confused with the original vulnerability discovery or fix timeline.

Official resources

Publicly disclosed and cataloged by NVD on 2017-02-09, with vendor remediation referenced for Dotclear 2.8.2. The vulnerability applies to Dotclear versions up to and including 2.8.1.