CVE-2025-27208VulnerabilityPublished 30 Oct 2025Updated 1 Dec 2025

CVE-2025-27208: Revive Adserver · Cross-site Scripting

Affects Revive AdserverSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.3 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.0 base score

6.3Medium

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

EPSS: 1.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 73% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: Low

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, 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: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
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: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 30 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 2026-10-25.

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
Revive Revive Adserver	Affected =5.5.2	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Immediate mitigation should include restricting access to the Revive Adserver administrative interface to trusted IPs or VPNs to reduce exposure to untrusted users. 2. Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the execution of unauthorized scripts within the browser context. 3. Educate administrative users about the risks of clicking on unsolicited or suspicious URLs, emphasizing phishing awareness. 4. Monitor web server logs for unusual requests to admin-search.php with suspicious 'compact' parameter values. 5. If possible, upgrade to a patched version of Revive Adserver once available; in the meantime, consider applying manual input validation or sanitization on the 'compact' parameter in the admin-search.php file. 6. Employ web application firewalls (WAF) with rules to detect and block reflected XSS attempts targeting the vulnerable parameter. 7. Regularly audit and review user permissions to ensure only necessary personnel have admin interface access. 8. Conduct penetration testing focused on XSS vulnerabilities to identify and remediate similar issues proactively.

Description

A reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability has been identified in Revive Adserver version 5.5.2. An attacker could trick a user with access to the user interface of a Revive Adserver instance into clicking on a specifically crafted URL and execute injected JavaScript code in the context of the victim's browser. The session cookie cannot be accessed, but a number of other operations could be performed. The vulnerability is present in the admin-search.php file and can be exploited via the compact parameter.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a moderate risk primarily to the confidentiality and integrity of data handled within the Revive Adserver platform. While session cookies are not exposed, attackers can exploit the XSS to execute arbitrary scripts, potentially leading to unauthorized actions such as altering ad campaigns, injecting malicious content into ads, or conducting phishing attacks against administrative users. This can result in reputational damage, financial loss due to manipulated advertising, and potential regulatory non-compliance under GDPR if personal data is indirectly affected. The requirement for user interaction and access to the admin interface somewhat limits the scope, but social engineering or phishing campaigns could increase exploitation likelihood. Organizations relying heavily on digital advertising platforms for revenue or marketing in Europe should consider this vulnerability a significant operational risk. The absence of known exploits in the wild provides a window for proactive defense, but the medium CVSS score indicates that exploitation could still cause meaningful disruption.

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

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 1 Dec 2025, 20:21 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats