Privilege escalation via conflicting HTTP message lengths
Published Aug 29, 2023 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
HTTP request tunneling in affected Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows releases allows remote authenticated users to gain privileges. The proxy's ForwardPostData logic honors Content-Length before Transfer-Encoding, while the repository service parses Transfer-Encoding, allowing a raw request to conceal a second backend request. A valid low-privilege session is sufficient for this flaw alone; the concealed request can impersonate a privileged service account and invoke repository APIs.
Summary
What happened
HTTP request tunneling in affected Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows releases allows remote authenticated users to gain privileges. The proxy's ForwardPostData logic honors Content-Length before Transfer-Encoding, while the repository service parses Transfer-Encoding, allowing a raw request to conceal a second backend request. A valid low-privilege session is sufficient for this flaw alone; the concealed request can impersonate a privileged service account and invoke repository APIs.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-41265
- Published
- Aug 29, 2023
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- Qlik
- Product
- Qlik Sense
- Classifications
- CWE-444, T1190
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 29, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0 <=august_2022
- Affected versionversion=0 <=february_2023
- Affected versionversion=0 <=may_2023
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
View daily counts
| Reporting day | Unique IPs |
|---|---|
| Sep 9, 2026 | Unavailable |
| Sep 10, 2026 | Unavailable |
| Sep 11, 2026 | Unavailable |
| Sep 12, 2026 | Unavailable |
| Sep 13, 2026 | Unavailable |
| Sep 14, 2026 | 1 |
| Sep 15, 2026 | Unavailable |
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- ZeroQlik proof-of-concept requestfunctional · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Reported exploitation
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities listingknown exploited catalog
- Cactus ransomware Qlik Sense campaignransomware
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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