Overview
CVE-2025-13505 describes a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability found in Datateam Information Technologies Inc.’s Datactive software. Specifically, versions 2.13.34 and prior to 2.14.0.6 are affected. This vulnerability allows an attacker to inject malicious JavaScript code into the application’s database. When other users access the affected data, the malicious script is executed in their browsers, potentially leading to sensitive data theft, session hijacking, or defacement of the application.
Technical Details
The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of user-supplied input during web page generation. Specifically, the application fails to adequately sanitize script-related HTML tags. An attacker can inject malicious JavaScript code through input fields or parameters that are later stored within the application’s database. When a user views the page containing the injected code, the browser executes the script within the user’s session, enabling the attacker to perform actions on behalf of the user.
This falls under the category of Stored XSS, also known as Persistent XSS, which is generally considered more dangerous than reflected XSS because the payload is stored on the server and can affect a wider range of users over a longer period.
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) assigns a score of 4.8 to CVE-2025-13505. The CVSS vector is not provided in the original data, but based on the description of the Stored XSS, we can estimate a potential vector.
A likely CVSS vector would be: AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
- AV:N (Attack Vector: Network) – The vulnerability can be exploited over a network.
- AC:H (Attack Complexity: High) – Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances exist. Requires user interaction or specific configuration.
- PR:L (Privileges Required: Low) – Attacker requires low-level privileges to exploit the vulnerability.
- UI:R (User Interaction: Required) – Successful exploitation requires a user to perform some action.
- S:U (Scope: Unchanged) – An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority.
- C:L (Confidentiality: Low) – Limited information disclosure.
- I:L (Integrity: Low) – Limited modification of data.
- A:N (Availability: None) – No impact to availability.
While the score is Medium, the potential impact of a Stored XSS should not be underestimated.
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to:
- Account Compromise: An attacker can steal a user’s session cookies and gain unauthorized access to their account.
- Data Theft: The attacker can inject scripts to steal sensitive data displayed on the page.
- Website Defacement: The attacker can modify the content of the website, potentially damaging the organization’s reputation.
- Malware Distribution: The attacker can redirect users to malicious websites or inject malware into the application.
Mitigation & Patch Steps
The recommended mitigation is to upgrade Datactive to version 2.14.0.6 or later. Datateam Information Technologies Inc. has released a patch to address this vulnerability.
If upgrading is not immediately possible, consider the following temporary mitigations:
- Input Validation: Implement strict input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data. Use allowlists to only accept expected characters and formats.
- Output Encoding: Encode all output data before rendering it in the browser. Use context-aware encoding to prevent XSS attacks.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Deploy a WAF to detect and block malicious requests. Configure the WAF to protect against XSS attacks.
- Content Security Policy (CSP): Implement a strong CSP to restrict the sources from which the browser can load resources. This can help prevent the execution of malicious scripts injected by an attacker.
