VulnerabilityPublished 23 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-50481: mezzanine · A Cross-site Scripting (XSS)

Affects mezzanineSource CVE Database V5

Public exploit available (Exploit-DB) · CVSS 4.8 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.8Medium

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

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 52% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
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: 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: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
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

t = 0 is the CVE’s publication on cve.org

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 23 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: evidence found.
1 Exploit-DB entry, 5 days after disclosure
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

CVE ID reserved
by MITRE Corporation
16 Jun 2025, 37 days before disclosure
CVE published
on cve.org
23 Jul 2025, t = 0
In Threat Radar
record ingested
23 Jul 202516:17 UTC, the same day as disclosure
First Exploit-DB entry (opens in a new tab)
Mezzanine CMS 6.1.0 - Stored Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
28 Jul 2025, 5 days after disclosure

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
GitHubstephenmcd/mezzanine`pkg:github/stephenmcd/mezzanine`Other threats	Affected =6.1.0	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately audit their Mezzanine CMS installations to identify if version 6.1.0 is in use and whether the /blog/blogpost/add functionality is accessible to untrusted users. If possible, restrict blog post submission to authenticated and authorized users only. Implement strict input validation and output encoding on all user-supplied content fields to neutralize malicious scripts. Employ Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the execution of unauthorized scripts in browsers. Regularly update Mezzanine CMS to the latest patched version once available from the vendor or community. In the interim, consider disabling or restricting the vulnerable blog post submission feature. Conduct security awareness training for administrators and users to recognize suspicious content. Monitor web server logs for unusual activity related to blog post submissions. Finally, implement web application firewalls (WAF) with rules to detect and block common XSS attack patterns targeting the CMS.

Description

A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the component /blog/blogpost/add of Mezzanine CMS v6.1.0 allows attackers to execute arbitrary web scripts or HTML via injecting a crafted payload into a blog post.

Impact

For European organizations using Mezzanine CMS 6.1.0, this XSS vulnerability poses a risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information, including user credentials and session tokens, potentially leading to account compromise. It can also facilitate phishing attacks by injecting deceptive content or redirecting users to malicious websites. Organizations relying on Mezzanine CMS for public-facing blogs or websites may suffer reputational damage if attackers deface content or distribute malware through the platform. Additionally, regulatory compliance risks arise under GDPR if personal data is exposed or compromised due to this vulnerability. The impact is heightened for sectors with high public interaction such as media, education, and government institutions. The absence of known exploits currently provides a window for proactive mitigation, but the ease of exploitation typical of XSS vulnerabilities means attackers could develop exploits rapidly once details are publicized.

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

Timeline

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 23 Jul 2025, 16:32 UTC

Public exploits and detection1 Exploit-DB entry

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats