Description

Cross-site Scripting (XSS) in index.php in CuteNews v.2.1.2 allows remote unauthenticated attackers to supply an arbitrarily named URL parameter key, with part of its name containing any URL-encoded common XSS payload (such as "><script>alert(1)</script>).

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "6.1",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-21T16:17:07.710Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-21T16:17:07.710Z",
  "executiveSummary": "CuteNews version 2.1.2 is susceptible to a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability residing within the index.php component. This security flaw allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript within the context of a victim's browser session. The vulnerability stems from the application's failure to adequately sanitize or encode arbitrary URL parameter keys before reflecting them back into the HTTP response.\nSuccessful exploitation facilitates unauthorized script execution, enabling a range of malicious activities including session hijacking, unauthorized access to sensitive cookies, redirection to malicious domains, and UI redressing or phishing. The attack does not require prior authentication, making it particularly dangerous as it can be leveraged against unsuspecting users via crafted links. The impact is significant, as it compromises the integrity of the user interaction with the web application and undermines the trust model of the affected site. Organizations utilizing CuteNews 2.1.2 should prioritize addressing this vector to prevent potential credential theft or persistent site-wide compromises.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is a classic Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) flaw located in the index.php script of the CuteNews v.2.1.2 content management system. The root cause is the improper handling of user-supplied input provided via the HTTP GET request parameters. Specifically, the application logic dynamically processes and reflects arbitrary URL parameter keys into the resulting HTML document without applying sufficient context-aware output encoding or input validation routines.\nThe attack flow begins when an unauthenticated attacker constructs a malicious URL targeting the index.php endpoint. The attacker appends an arbitrary parameter name containing an encoded XSS payload, such as '><script>alert(1)</script>. Because the application environment takes the parameter key provided in the request URI and reflects it directly into the server response—often to generate dynamic content or error messages—the browser interprets the injected string as active content rather than plain text data.\nWhen a victim visits the attacker-crafted link, the server processes the malicious parameter name. Since the application fails to perform structural validation or sanitize special characters such as angle brackets (<, >), quotes (', \"), and script tags, the payload is parsed by the victim's browser. The execution occurs within the origin of the vulnerable site, granting the injected script full access to the Document Object Model (DOM), session-based cookies (unless protected by HttpOnly flags), and LocalStorage/SessionStorage associated with the site domain.\nThe exploitation process is as follows: 1) An attacker identifies that index.php reflects URL parameter keys in the generated HTML; 2) The attacker crafts a payload (e.g., '><script>/* malicious code */</script>) and encodes it to fit the URI structure; 3) The attacker distributes the link via phishing or social engineering; 4) Upon receipt of the request, the server reflects the payload into the response body; 5) The victim's web browser parses the response, triggering the JavaScript execution. This behavior leads to immediate impact, including the theft of session tokens which facilitates account takeover, unauthorized performance of actions on behalf of the user, and potential browser-side data exfiltration."
}