CVE-2025-31988 is a medium-severity vulnerability classified as CWE-79, indicating an improper neutralization of input during web page generation, commonly known as Cross-site Scripting (XSS). This vulnerability affects HCL Software's Digital Experience product versions 8.5, 9.0, and 9.5. The issue resides in an administrative user interface component that has restricted access, meaning only authenticated users with elevated privileges can reach the vulnerable functionality. The vulnerability allows an attacker to inject malicious scripts into the web pages generated by the administrative UI. While the CVSS vector indicates that the attack can be performed remotely over the network (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), it requires high privileges (PR:H) and does not require user interaction (UI:N). The impact is primarily on integrity (I:H), with no direct impact on confidentiality or availability. Exploiting this vulnerability could allow an attacker with administrative access to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of the web application, potentially leading to unauthorized actions, session hijacking, or manipulation of administrative functions. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability was published on August 19, 2025, and was reserved earlier in April 2025. Given the administrative nature of the interface, exploitation requires an attacker to have already compromised or have legitimate access to an administrative account, which limits the attack surface but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments where insider threats or credential compromise are concerns.

For European organizations using HCL Digital Experience, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the integrity of their administrative interfaces. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to manipulate administrative settings, potentially leading to unauthorized changes in website content, user permissions, or configuration settings. This could disrupt business operations, damage brand reputation, or facilitate further attacks such as privilege escalation or data manipulation. Since the vulnerability does not impact confidentiality or availability directly, the immediate risk to sensitive data leakage or service outages is lower. However, the administrative nature of the affected interface means that attackers could leverage this vulnerability as a foothold for more extensive compromise. European organizations with complex digital experience platforms, especially those in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, or government, may face compliance risks if administrative controls are undermined. The requirement for high privileges to exploit reduces the likelihood of external attackers exploiting this vulnerability without prior access, but insider threats or attackers who have obtained administrative credentials remain a concern.

1. Restrict administrative UI access strictly to trusted personnel and enforce strong authentication mechanisms, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), to reduce the risk of credential compromise. 2. Monitor administrative access logs for unusual activity that could indicate attempts to exploit this vulnerability. 3. Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the impact of potential XSS attacks by restricting the execution of unauthorized scripts. 4. Apply input validation and output encoding best practices in customizations or extensions of the HCL Digital Experience platform to prevent injection of malicious scripts. 5. Stay alert for official patches or updates from HCL Software addressing CVE-2025-31988 and apply them promptly once available. 6. Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on administrative interfaces to detect and remediate XSS and other injection vulnerabilities. 7. Educate administrative users about phishing and social engineering risks that could lead to credential theft, thereby reducing the risk of attackers gaining the required high privileges.