CVE-2025-12231VulnerabilityPublished 27 Oct 2025Updated 24 Feb 2026

CVE-2025-12231: projectworlds Expense Management System · Cross Site Scripting

Affects projectworlds Expense Management SystemSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.8 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

4.8Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 17% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P

Base metrics

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: Passive
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: Low
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Threat metrics

Exploit Maturity: POC

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker requires privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable system allowing full access to the vulnerable system’s settings and files.
User Interaction: Passive: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires limited interaction by the targeted user with the vulnerable system and the attacker’s payload. These interactions would be considered involuntary and do not require that the user actively subvert protections built into the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact to the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Exploit Maturity: POC: Based on threat intelligence sources each of the following must apply: · Proof-of-concept is publicly available · No knowledge of reported attempts to exploit this vulnerability · No knowledge of publicly available solutions used to simplify attempts to exploit the vulnerability

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Oct 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
projectworlds Expense Management System	Affected =1.0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-12231, organizations should implement strict input validation and output encoding on all user-supplied data within the Expense Categories Page, particularly the /public/admin/expense_categories/create endpoint. Employing context-aware encoding libraries (e.g., OWASP Java Encoder or similar) will prevent malicious script injection. Restrict access to the vulnerable component to only trusted, authenticated administrators and enforce multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of compromised credentials. Monitor web application logs for suspicious input patterns or anomalous user behavior indicative of attempted XSS exploitation. Since no official patches are currently available, consider deploying web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block XSS payloads targeting this endpoint. Educate administrators about phishing risks and safe browsing practices to minimize user interaction exploitation. Finally, maintain an incident response plan to quickly address any detected exploitation attempts and update the system as soon as a vendor patch is released.

Description

A security vulnerability has been detected in projectworlds Expense Management System 1.0. Affected is an unknown function of the file /public/admin/expense_categories/create of the component Expense Categories Page. Such manipulation leads to cross site scripting. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploit has been disclosed publicly and may be used.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-12231 is the potential compromise of confidentiality and integrity within affected systems. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of authenticated users, leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or unauthorized transactions within the expense management system. This could result in financial fraud, data leakage of sensitive expense records, and erosion of trust in the affected organization's internal controls. Since the vulnerability requires high-level privileges and user interaction, the attack surface is somewhat limited, but insider threats or targeted phishing campaigns could exploit it effectively. Organizations relying on this software for financial management risk operational disruption and reputational damage if exploited. The absence of availability impact means system uptime is unlikely to be affected directly, but indirect effects such as administrative lockouts or data corruption could occur if attackers leverage the XSS to escalate privileges or inject further payloads.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 24 Feb 2026, 21:39 UTC

Technical details

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