CVE-2025-53486 json
WikiCategoryTagCloud: Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) via linkstyle attribute in parser function
published last yr. modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2025-20242
- cvss
- 5.4
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.3%
- EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 21%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
The WikiCategoryTagCloud extension is vulnerable to reflected XSS via the linkstyle attribute, which is improperly concatenated into inline HTML without escaping. An attacker can inject JavaScript event handlers such as onmouseenter using carefully crafted input via the {{#tag:tagcloud}} parser function, resulting in arbitrary JavaScript execution when a victim hovers over a link in the category cloud.
The vulnerability exists because the linkstyle parameter is only passed through Sanitizer::checkCss() (which does not escape HTML) and is then directly inserted into a style attribute using string concatenation instead of Html::element or Html::openElement.
This issue affects Mediawiki - WikiCategoryTagCloud extension: from 1.39.X before 1.39.13, from 1.42.X before 1.42.7, from 1.43.X before 1.43.2.
Patch / fix
- Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki - WikiCategoryTagCloud extension 1.39.13, 1.42.7, 1.43.2
Is CVE-2025-53486 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.
Check with FencerCISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- Proof of concept is public
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
- Assessed
- last yr.
Exploit prediction
0.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 21% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CISA ADP | 3.1 | 5.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N |
| CNA | 3.1 | 5.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N |
Affected products
- Wikimedia Foundation Mediawiki - WikiCategoryTagCloud extension
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-79 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation
References
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2025-53486
- NVD CVE-2025-53486
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