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Citizen vulnerable to Stored XSS through short descriptions

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jul 3, 2025 in StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen • Updated Jul 3, 2025

Package

composer starcitizentools/citizen-skin (Composer)

Affected versions

>= 1.9.4, < 3.4.0

Patched versions

3.4.0

Description

Summary

Short descriptions set via the ShortDescription extension are inserted as raw HTML by the Citizen skin, allowing any user to insert arbitrary HTML into the DOM by editing a page.

Details

The shortdesc property, which contains unsanitized user input, is retrieved from the OutputPage and returned as the tagline:
https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/blob/0d8a44011e02a081618359a1e90f462478e807aa/includes/Components/CitizenComponentPageHeading.php#L249-L251
The tagline is then provided to the template data:
https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/blob/0d8a44011e02a081618359a1e90f462478e807aa/includes/Components/CitizenComponentPageHeading.php#L270-L275
The template then inserts the tagline into raw HTML without doing any escaping:
https://github.com/StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen/blob/0d8a44011e02a081618359a1e90f462478e807aa/templates/PageHeading.mustache#L12

PoC

  1. Enable Citizen and ShortDescription
  2. Add {{SHORTDESC:&lt;img src="" onerror="alert('citizen shortdescription xss')"&gt;}} to a page
  3. Visit the page
    image
    image

Impact

Arbitrary HTML can be inserted into the DOM by any user, allowing for JavaScript to be executed.

References

@alistair3149 alistair3149 published to StarCitizenTools/mediawiki-skins-Citizen Jul 3, 2025
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jul 3, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jul 3, 2025
Reviewed Jul 3, 2025
Last updated Jul 3, 2025

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:L

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(18th percentile)

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-53370

GHSA ID

GHSA-prmv-7r8c-794g

Source code

Credits

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