VulnerabilityPublished 14 Jan 2025Updated 15 Jan 2025

CVE-2025-22996: A Stored Cross-site Scripting (XSS)

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.8 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.8Medium

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

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 24% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Attack Vector: Adjacent
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

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

Attack Vector: Adjacent: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack, but the attack is limited at the protocol level to a logically adjacent topology. This can mean an attack must be launched from the same shared physical (e.g., Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11) or logical (e.g., local IP subnet) network, or from within a secure or otherwise limited administrative domain (e.g., MPLS, secure VPN to an administrative network zone).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
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 on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 14 Jan 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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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

AI-suggested

Limit access to the router’s web management interface to trusted networks and users only, ideally via VPN or secure management VLANs.
Enforce strong authentication mechanisms and change default credentials to reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
Monitor and audit router logs and configuration changes regularly to detect suspicious activity or unexpected inputs in the 'desc' parameter.
Educate users with access to the router interface about the risks of interacting with untrusted links or payloads that could trigger XSS attacks.
Apply any firmware updates or patches released by Linksys promptly once available to address this vulnerability.
Consider deploying web application firewalls (WAFs) or network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) that can detect and block XSS payloads targeting router management interfaces.
If possible, disable or restrict features that allow user input into the 'desc' parameter or sanitize inputs at the network perimeter using proxy solutions.
For organizations with large deployments, conduct vulnerability scans and penetration tests focused on router management interfaces to identify and remediate similar issues proactively.

Description

A stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the spf_table_content component of Linksys E5600 Router Ver.1.1.0.26 allows attackers to execute arbitrary web scripts or HTML via a crafted payload injected into the desc parameter.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-22996 is the potential compromise of confidentiality and integrity within the router’s web management interface. Successful exploitation allows attackers to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of a legitimate user’s session, potentially leading to session hijacking, theft of sensitive configuration data, or unauthorized changes to router settings. This can undermine network security by enabling attackers to redirect traffic, disable security features, or create persistent backdoors. Although availability is not directly affected, the indirect consequences of compromised router integrity can lead to broader network disruptions. The requirement for authenticated access and user interaction reduces the likelihood of widespread automated exploitation but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments where multiple users have access to the router interface. Organizations relying on Linksys E5600 routers in enterprise or critical infrastructure settings may face increased risk of targeted attacks aiming to pivot into internal networks. Home users may also be vulnerable to local attackers or social engineering attacks that trick users into triggering the malicious payload.

CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #1OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation · Architecture and Design
Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages.
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
DOM based XSS Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch (opens in a new tab)
DOM-Based XSS (opens in a new tab)
Reflected XSS (opens in a new tab)
Stored XSS (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

github.com/SunnyYANGyaya/firmcrosser/blob/main/Linksys/E5600-2.md (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Feb 2026, 12:33 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

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