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CVE-2025-53369 — Vulnerability in...

HIGH

Citizen Short Description stored XSS vulnerability through wikitext

Published July 3, 2025Updated July 3, 2025Source: osv

Summary

### Summary Short descriptions are not properly sanitized by the ShortDescription before being inserted as HTML using `mw.util.addSubtitle`, allowing any user to insert arbitrary HTML into the DOM by editing a page. ### Details The description provided by the user via the `{{SHORTDESC:}}` parser function is insufficiently sanitized by the `sanitize()` function, as html entities are decoded: https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-extensions-ShortDescription/blob/7244b1e8b5cb6dbd7e546c5be7fed8a56e33d065/includes/Hooks/ParserHooks.php#L147-L159 Via JS, the short description is then passed to `mw.util.addSubtitle`, which inserts it as raw HTML: https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-extensions-ShortDescription/blob/7244b1e8b5cb6dbd7e546c5be7fed8a56e33d065/modules/ext.shortDescription.js#L8 https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki/blob/96372101b3c579d9992e8a31a3ccd90a937cac47/resources/src/mediawiki.util/util.js#L552-L563 ### PoC 1. Enable ShortDescription 2. Make sure `$wgShortDescriptionEnableTagline` is set to `true` (this is the default) 3. Create a page and insert the following wikitext: `{{SHORTDESC:<img src="" onerror="alert('shortdescription xss')">}}` 4. Visit the page ![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8e467f28-3bb5-4462-b28b-14e145be743f) ![image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/39e132c3-6a92-4f24-8aef-b915e8560f63) ### Impact Arbitrary HTML can be inserted into the DOM by any user, allowing for JavaScript to be executed.

Advisory Timeline

  • First published July 3, 2025 (466 days ago).
  • Last revised July 3, 2025 — 0 days after initial publication.

Remediation

Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.

Composer
Update starcitizentools/short-description to 4.0.1 or later
composer require "starcitizentools/short-description:^4.0.1"

After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.

Affected Packages (1)

Affects 1 ecosystem: packagist (1).

PackageEcosystemAffectedFixed In
starcitizentools/short-description
packagist
All versions4.0.1

Vulnerability Classification

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.

  • CWE-79
    Cross-site Scripting (XSS)MITRE

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 8.6 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-53369?
Citizen Short Description stored XSS vulnerability through wikitext This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of HIGH (CVSS score: 8.6/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2025-53369?
CVE-2025-53369 affects starcitizentools/short-description. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2025-53369 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score
8.6

High exploitability or significant impact. Prioritize remediation within days.

Also Known As

GHSA-p85q-mww9-gwqf

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  • CVE-2026-61825
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