Overview
CVE-2025-55056 is a medium severity vulnerability classified as Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation, also known as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). This vulnerability allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. Exploiting this flaw can lead to data theft, session hijacking, or defacement of websites. This advisory aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the vulnerability and offers guidance on how to mitigate its impact.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from a failure to properly sanitize user-supplied input before rendering it in a web page. Specifically, the affected application(s) do not adequately escape or encode user-provided data that is subsequently included in the HTML output. An attacker can leverage this flaw by injecting malicious JavaScript code into a vulnerable parameter, such as a search query, form field, or URL. When another user visits the page containing the injected script, their browser will execute the code, potentially compromising their account or system.
The CWE associated with this vulnerability is CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation (‘Cross-site Scripting’)).
CVSS Analysis
The CVSS score for CVE-2025-55056 is 4.8, indicating a medium severity vulnerability. While the impact is potentially significant, the attack complexity and required privileges are factors contributing to the medium rating. A typical CVSS vector might look something like: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of CVE-2025-55056 can have severe consequences:
- Data Theft: Attackers can steal sensitive information, such as cookies, session tokens, and personal data.
- Session Hijacking: Attackers can hijack user sessions, gaining unauthorized access to accounts and resources.
- Website Defacement: Attackers can modify the appearance of the website, potentially damaging its reputation.
- Malware Distribution: Attackers can inject malicious code to redirect users to phishing sites or distribute malware.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
To protect against CVE-2025-55056, apply the following mitigation measures:
- Input Validation and Sanitization: Implement robust input validation to ensure that user-supplied data conforms to expected formats and does not contain malicious characters. Sanitize all user input before rendering it in a web page.
- Output Encoding: Encode output data based on the context in which it is used. Use HTML entity encoding for HTML output, JavaScript encoding for JavaScript output, and URL encoding for URLs.
- Content Security Policy (CSP): Implement a strict Content Security Policy to restrict the sources from which the browser can load resources.
- Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and address vulnerabilities in your web applications.
- Apply Patches: If a patch or update is available from the vendor, apply it immediately.
