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Fencer Intel
high 7.3

CVE-2021-41252 json

Cross-site scripting (XSS) from writer field content in the site frontend

published 4y ago modified 4mo ago also GHSA-x7j7-qp7j-hw3q , EUVD-2021-2413

cvss
7.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.9%
EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 60%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Kirby is an open source file structured CMS ### Impact Kirby's writer field stores its formatted content as HTML code. Unlike with other field types, it is not possible to escape HTML special characters against cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, otherwise the formatting would be lost. If the user is logged in to the Panel, a harmful script can for example trigger requests to Kirby's API with the permissions of the victim. Because the writer field did not securely sanitize its contents on save, it was possible to inject malicious HTML code into the content file by sending it to Kirby's API directly without using the Panel. This malicious HTML code would then be displayed on the site frontend and executed in the browsers of site visitors and logged in users who are browsing the site. Attackers must be in your group of authenticated Panel users in order to exploit this weakness. Users who do not make use of the writer field are not affected. This issue has been patched in Kirby 3.5.8 by sanitizing all writer field contents on the backend whenever the content is modified via Kirby's API. Please update to this or a later version to fix the vulnerability.

Patch / fix

  • packagist getkirby/cms 3.5.8

Is CVE-2021-41252 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Exploit prediction

0.93% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 60% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 3.1 5.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:N/AC:H/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N
GitHub 3.1 5.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
packagist getkirby/cms
>=3.5.0, <3.5.8
3.5.8

Affected products

  • getkirby kirby

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.