VulnerabilityPublished 28 May 2025

CVE-2025-31501: bestpractical RT · XSS or 'Cross-site Scripting'

Affects bestpractical RTSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.2 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.2High

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

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 16% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

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

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: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
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 28 May 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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
bestpractical RT	Affected 5.0.0 – 5.0.7 8 affected builds	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Immediate mitigation should include restricting external access to the RT web interface through network segmentation, VPNs, or IP whitelisting to reduce exposure.
Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules specifically designed to detect and block suspicious JavaScript payloads or unusual permalink requests targeting RT.
Encourage users to avoid clicking on untrusted or unsolicited RT permalinks until a patch is available.
Monitor RT logs for anomalous URL access patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts.
Apply strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers on the RT web server to limit the execution of unauthorized scripts and reduce the impact of XSS.
Once available, promptly apply vendor patches or updates addressing this vulnerability.
Conduct security awareness training for users to recognize phishing attempts that might leverage malicious RT permalinks.
Review and harden input validation and output encoding mechanisms in RT configurations if customization is possible.
Consider deploying browser isolation or script-blocking extensions for users with access to RT to mitigate script execution risks.

Description

Best Practical RT (Request Tracker) 5.0 through 5.0.7 allows XSS via JavaScript injection in an RT permalink.

Impact

For European organizations using Best Practical RT, this vulnerability poses a considerable risk to the confidentiality and integrity of their ticketing and issue tracking data. RT often contains sensitive operational, customer, and internal communication information, making it a valuable target. Exploitation could allow attackers to steal session cookies, impersonate users, or inject malicious scripts that perform unauthorized actions within RT. This can disrupt business workflows, lead to data leakage, and potentially facilitate further lateral movement within the network. Given RT's role in managing IT support and incident response, compromise could delay or obstruct critical remediation efforts. The vulnerability's remote and unauthenticated nature increases the likelihood of exploitation, especially in environments where RT is exposed to the internet or accessible by many users. European organizations with strict data protection regulations, such as GDPR, may face compliance risks and reputational damage if this vulnerability is exploited and leads to data breaches. Additionally, the lack of user interaction requirement means automated attacks or worm-like propagation could be possible if attackers develop exploit tools.

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 7 Jul 2025, 07:24 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats